Warwickshire off-spinner Jeetan Patel has followed up being crowned the PCA’s Most Valuable Player with a recall to the New Zealand Test Squad. The 36-year-old bagged the MVP award, and the £10,000 cheque that comes with it, for the second time in three years after another stellar season at Edgbaston. Patel was the leading wicket taker in division one this season with 69 scalps to his name, as well as playing a helping hand in Warwickshire’s Royal London One Day Cup triumph. A popular figure in the dressing room, Patel was delighted with the honour: “To walk away with the PCA MVP and take 69 wickets which is 10 more than I did last year is pretty special. It means...
The bitter disappointment of missing out on a first Championship title for Somerset will take a while longer to ease for the county’s players, who went so close to making history with their stirring late-season charge. But they are still able to take pride in their efforts – and to look forward to a bright future for the club. For Jack Leach, the 25-year-old left-arm spinner who took an astonishing 65 wickets in his first full season, that involves a new three-year contract – announced by Somerset at the same time as an extended deal for Dom Bess, the teenage off-spinner with whom he formed such an effective combination in the last couple of games at Taunton. And both of...
Charlotte Edwards has claimed yet another first as she joined Ben Duckett and Keaton Jennings as the three playing award winners at the Cricket Writers’ Club’s 70th anniversary lunch. Edwards was named the inaugural winner of the CWC’s Women’s Cricket Award, with Jennings the fifth recipient of the County Championship Player of the Year Award, and Duckett joining the long list of distinguished names to have received the CWC Young Player of the Year Award – which was first presented to Lancashire’s Roy Tattersall in 1950. The CWC marked its 70 th anniversary by introducing a new annual award to recognise the importance of women’s and girls’ cricket, and Edwards was chosen by a panel chaired by Alison Mitchell of the...
Jason Roy rocks back in his chair and cannot suppress a telling grin as he takes a moment to consider what it is like to play cricket in front of a packed crowd at the Kia Oval. From bashing helpless bowlers to all corners of the ground for a career-highlight century to receiving the “warmth” of the crowd when fielding on the boundary, the England opener is passionate about a venue he has been involved with for more than 11 years. “It’s different level, it just feels like everyone is on top of you,” said Roy, who carved 162 against Sri Lanka at the famous London ground earlier this summer. “Especially so when the first innings has finished and everyone...
In this week’s England Cricket Podcast – the last of the season – we concentrate on epic climax to the Specsavers County Championship Division One title. From the victorious Middlesex camp we hear from James Franklin, Nick Gubbins, Nick Compton, Steven Finn and ‘The Boss’, Angus Fraser. From thwarted Somerset we are joined by Chris Rogers, Jack Leach, coach Matthew Maynard and Somerset pundit Vic Marks, while third-placed Yorkshire as represented by Andrew Gale and Tim Bresnan.
