Northamptonshire’s Ben Duckett capped a season that saw him gain selection for both England’s Test and one-day squads by being named the Cricket Writers’ Club young player of the year for 2016 on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old left-handed batsman topped a ballot of the CWC membership after a superb season across all formats.
Among the highlights was his destructive unbeaten 220 from 131 balls, including 29 fours and six sixes for the England Lions in a one-day game against Sri Lanka A in July. Yet that was not even his highest score of the season, with Duckett making 282 not out for Northants against Sussex in the County Championship in April. His tally of 1,338 runs in the County Championship included four hundreds, while he also helped Northamptonshire win the Twenty20 Blast title. Duckett’s form saw him selected for both the Test and one-day squads for England’s tour of Bangladesh.
Duckett is the first Northamptonshire player to receive the award since former England batsman Rob Bailey, now an international umpire, won it in 1984. The award was first presented in 1950 and is restricted to England-qualified players under the age of 23.
The County Championship player of the year award was won by Durham’s South Africa-born batsman Keaton Jennings. The 24-year-old England-qualified batsman was the leading run-scorer in the competition with 1,548 runs at an average of 64.5 with seven hundreds, including a double century against Yorkshire. His career-best 88 in the T20 Blast final was also the highest score during Twenty20 finals day.
Charlotte Edwards has spent much of her career breaking new ground so it was, perhaps, appropriate that she should be the first winner of the CWC women’s award – the first time the club has specifically honoured a female cricketer in its 70-year history.
Edwards began the year as England captain – a post she had held for a decade – and led her country to the final of the World T20 in India and finished as England’s leading run scorer, and the tournament’s second-highest scorer overall, only to be removed from the England captaincy in a controversial move as team management sought a fresh start.
That decision prompted Edwards, 36 to retire from international cricket after more than 300 senior games for her country. Yet far from calling time on her career, Edwards captained three sides to a unique domestic treble in leading Kent to the 50-over County Championship title, the Twenty20 title, and the Southern Vipers to victory in the inaugural T20 Super League.
All the trophies, together with the Cricket Writers’ Club Book of the Year award, and the Peter Smith award for the promotion of cricket to the public, will be presented during the course of the Club’s annual lunch at London’s Merchant Taylors’ Hall on Tuesday.
