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Two of England’s newest recruits have been shortlisted by their peers for the headline honours at the NatWest PCA Awards. Northamptonshire’s very own Ben Duckett has been nominated for the NatWest Players’ Player of the Year and joins Lancashire’s 19-year-old batsman Haseeb Hameed in the category for the NatWest Young Player of the Year.

Duckett is also in contention to become the first player to win both honours in the same year as he has also been nominated for the NatWest Young Player of the Year.

The NatWest Player of the Year and winner of the Reg Hayter Cup leads the most prestigious awards ceremony in English cricket and Duckett is joined by Durham batsman Keaton Jennings, Essex all-rounder Graham Napier and Warwickshire’s Royal London One-Day Cup-winning spinner Jeetan Patel on the shortlist.

The flagship award, which is voted for by current  professional cricketers in England and Wales, will be presented at the 47^th NatWest PCA Awards which will be held at Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Wednesday  September 28.

Two other rising stars will also be hoping to lift the John Arlott Cup and be recognised by their fellow professionals with Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond and Surrey’s Sam Curran joining Duckett and Hameed on the shortlist to be awarded the NatWest Young Player of the Year.

There are also three nominees in the Waitrose Women’s Player of the Summer category, voted for by players who featured for England women this summer and they earmarked Tammy Beaumont, Natalie Sciver and Lauren Winfield as contenders.

The NatWest PCA Awards evening is an event run by the PCA in association with the England and Wales Cricket Board and will once again be sponsored by NatWest after previously holding naming rights for 10 years. The Awards reflect on and honour the domestic season with all monies raised on the night going to the PCA Benevolent Fund.

A detailed look at the nominees…

NOMINEES FOR NATWEST PLAYERS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire):
A destructive top order batsman, Duckett has punished bowlers throughout 2016, hitting 2,706 runs across all formats and starred for the England Lions where he hit a record breaking 220 not out against Sri Lanka A at Canterbury, the highest ever score by a Lions player, which was followed by a first call-up to the senior England squad to tour Bangladesh next month.

The 21-year-old also hit five hundreds in red-ball cricket, including two double centuries with a career-best 282 not out to open the season against Sussex at Wantage Road . Duckett, a product of Stowe School, also made three centuries in white ball which helped secure a sufficiently high position in the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings to earn an invitation to play for the North against the South in a pioneering three-match series in the United Arab Emirates  next March.

Duckett top-scored for his county in each of the three formats and ended the NatWest T20 Blast season with 477 runs, at a strike rate of 142 which included smashing 84 from 47 balls in the T20 Blast semi-final against Nottinghamshire.

Keaton Jennings (Durham):
Durham’s top order batsman has had a season to remember hitting  a club record seven Specsavers County Championship Division One hundreds at an average just shy of 70 amongst his 1,522 runs during his 16 four-day encounters.

Jennings, the son of former South Africa coach Ray Jennings,  made two double centuries including a career-best 221 against Yorkshire in June and  played a huge part in securing Durham’s place in the top tier of the Championship. The 24-year-old left-hander also stood out in the NatWest T20 Blast, scoring 348 runs at an average of 43.5 while taking 17 wickets in all formats.

Although Jennings missed out on a place on England’s senior tour to Bangladesh there was compensation with his first call-up by the England Lions for their trip to the United Arab Emirates.

 

Graham Napier (Essex):
Napier is in with a chance of lifting the Reg Hayter Cup in what would be a fitting end to his 20-year career with Essex. A season haul of 97 wickets in al formats and 378 runs saw the all-rounder  lead his county back to Division One of the Specsavers County Championship in his final hurrah.

Napier has now retired to take up a coaching post at the Royal Hospital School in Suffolk where he has succeeded Don Topley, another former Essex player. Essex clinched promotion against Glamorgan at Chelmsford in Napier’s 179^th and final first-class match.

Napier, a  staunch supporter of the PCA Benevolent Fund, ended his farewell season with 69 first-class wickets and five five wicket hauls. He also contributed almost 300 championship runs including the seventh first-class century of his career against Sussex at Colchester in August.

Napier showed white ball cricket isn’t necessarily a young man’s game too with his 34 wickets meaning he can leave the sport on a high and importantly on his terms.

Jeetan Patel (Warwickshire):
Patel is a nominee for the second time in three years after a consistent summer which saw the former New Zealand off-spinner lead the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings for the majority of the second half of the campaign and starred in Warwickshire’s run to lifting the Royal London One-Day Cup, taking 22 wickets in the process.

Patel has taken almost 100 wickets across all formats, with four five wicket hauls in the Specsavers County Championship including 10 wickets in the win over Surrey at Guildford which briefly took Warwickshire top of the First Division in early July.

The 36-year-old is on course to win the PCA’s MVP Award for the second time in three years at the conclusion of the season tomorrow to underline his consistent top-class performances.

NOMINEES FOR NATWEST YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent):
After a promising start to his career, 2016 was the year Bell-Drummond burst onto the scene opening the batting for Kent and the England Lions.

The 23-year-old has scored more than 1,700 runs in all formats including a mammoth 171 not out , his maiden List A century, for the Lions in their victory over Sri Lanka A at Canterbury, his home ground. Bell-Drummond made his mark with a century against Australia in 2015 and launched the 2016 season with a maiden double century against the Loughborough students in April.

The right-hander helped Kent to the quarter-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup and struck a maiden T20 century, 112, against Surrey in a group match at Tunbridge Wells.

 

Sam Curran (Surrey):
The 18-year-old all-rounder didn’t fall foul of the ‘second season syndrome’ as he  went from strength to strength in juggling his cricket with completing his  A-levels at Wellington College in Berkshire. Curran played 33 games in all competitions, taking 41 wickets and scoring 784 runs and debuted for the England Lions.

Curran, the son of the late Kevin Curran, the former Zimbabwe all-rounder, hit six fifties across all formats and came agonisingly close to his maiden century when he fell just four runs short against Lancashire in August. Arguably his personal highlight of the season was in his final first-class game of the campaign where he took a career best 7-58 and 50* against Durham in a bitter-sweet encounter where Durham pipped the brown caps by 21 runs.

Curran is the youngest of three cricket-playing brothers and could follow his elder sibling Tom who was voted  PCA Young Player of the Year in 2015.

 

Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire):
Following his nomination for the NatWest Players’ Player of the Year, Duckett is also a contender to lift the John Arlott Cup for the NatWest Young Player of the Year and could be the first player to ever win both accolades in the same year.

The destructive top order batsman has punished bowlers throughout 2016, hitting an astonishing 2,706 runs across all formats and starred for the England Lions where he hit a record breaking 220 not out, the highest ever score by a Lions player which has led to a first call-up to the senior England squad to tor Bangladesh next month.

Haseeb Hameed (Lancashire):

Hameed, Bolton born and raised,  could become England’s youngest ever opening batsman at the age of just 19 in Bangladesh next month in what would be only his 21^st first-class match after he secured a place in the Test touring party following a prolific breakthrough summer.

The Lancashire right-hander has  played in all 16 Specsavers County Championship Division One matches scoring more than 1,100 runs at an average of over 50 with four hundreds and seven half centuries.

Hameed broke a number of Lancashire records during a run spree in the Roses Match against Yorkshire in August. He followed up 114 in the first innings with 100 not out in the second to  become the youngest ever Lancastrian to score two centuries in the same match. He was the first Lancastrian to achieve the feat against Yorkshire. the youngest to 1,000 Championship runs in one season and the first teenager in the Championship to reach three figures four times in the same campaign.

WAITROSE WOMEN’S PLAYER OF THE SUMMER

Tammy Beaumont:

Beaumont was a shining light during a record-breaking summer for England women.  With scores of 70, 104 and 168 not out, her 342-run aggregate in the Royal London ODI series against Pakistan was the highest ever in the history of the game in a three-match ODI series (male or female). 

 

The right-handed opener from Kent followed up this incredible run scoring tally by smashing a further 142 runs in the three-match NatWest IT20 series, to take her to international tally to 484 for the summer at an average of just under 100.    

 

Natalie Sciver:

Sciver cemented her place as one of the most destructive batsmen in international women’s cricket this summer, when she hammered a remarkable 80 off just 33 balls, including six sixes, against Pakistan in the second Royal London ODI at Worcester. 

 

The 24-year-old continued her summer with a comparatively sedate 48 from 22 balls in the third match in Taunton.  Alongside the brilliant demonstration of power-hitting, Sciver also confirmed her all-round talent, picking up seven wickets across the six matches against Pakistan.

 

Lauren Winfield:

Winfield epitomised the difference a day can make in cricket this summer, when in less than 24 hours she went from a first ball duck in the opening Royal London ODI against Pakistan at Leicester to blasting her maiden ODI century off just 117 balls at Worcester, as part of a record-breaking England women’s ODI opening partnership (235) with Tammy Beaumont. 

 

The Yorkshire batsman continued this form into the three-match NatWest IT20 series against the tourists, averaging over 55 at a strike-rate of over 167.

 

  

Full list of Awards to be presented on Wednesday September 28:

Harold Goldblatt Award for the PCA Umpire of the Year

Greene King PCA England Masters MVP

ECB Special Award

PCA Special Merit Award

NatWest T20 Blast Player of the Year Award

Royal London One Day Cup Player of the Year Award

Sky Sports Sixes Award

Greene King Team of the Year

Waitrose Women’s Player of the Summer

Investec Test Player of the Summer

John Arlott Cup for the NatWest PCA Young Player of the Year

Reg Hayter Cup for the NatWest PCA Player of the Year

Overall PCA County MVP

 

Notes to editors

All nominees are anticipated to attend the NatWest PCA Awards, along with county players and the England squad to tour Bangladesh. In advance of the Awards, there will be an area at Grosvenor House Hotel for selected media where players will be available for interview. Accreditation is needed in advance and is at the discretion of the PCA.

 

For further information and to submit an accreditation request, please email Luke Reynolds: 

 

Announcement of winners:

The details of winners for each award will be announced to the media under strict embargo at 4pm on Wednesday 28^th September with a release time of 11.59pm the same day.

 

Photography:

The official NatWest PCA Awards photographers are Getty Images, who can provide images of the players arriving and winners collecting their awards.

 

The PCA are the collective and representative voice of first class cricketers in England and Wales. Its role is to safeguard the rights of present, past and future first class cricketers. The PCA Benevolent Fund is the registered charity of the PCA, charity number 1120088.

 

All monies raised from the evening are donated to the PCA Benevolent Fund, sponsored by Royal London, is part of the PCA’s commitment to supporting players and their dependents who might be in need of a helping hand to readjust to a world beyond cricket, as well as helping current and past players who may have fallen on hard times or are in need of specialist advice or assistance.

 

For more than 35 years, NatWest has been an innovative and passionate presence at the heart of international, domestic and grassroots cricket in England.

 

As well as continuing to provide support for the biggest names in today’s game, the NatWest Cricket Rewards programmes allows  NatWest current account customers access to  exclusive cricket experiences, together with raising awareness of the challenges facing cricket at grassroots level and generating support for local clubs through a combination of volunteering, fundraising and contributions from local communities.

For more information please visit natwest.com/cricket