Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Sparks keeper tops MVP to hand her Player of the Year and £2,500 prize.
Amy Jones has won the 2022 Charlotte Edwards Cup Player of the Year courtesy of finishing the competition as statistically the number one player.
The Central Sparks wicketkeeper-batter ended the tournament as the top run scorer, showing her international pedigree on the domestic stage and was presented with the trophy following the Charlotte Edwards Cup final on Saturday.
Jones’ team were edged out in the final with Southern Vipers crowned deserved champions, after winning all of their seven games in 2022. However, Amy joined her namesake, Eve, by winning the Charlotte Edwards Cup Player of the Year, following her captain’s triumph in 2021.
The Player of the Year is selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings, with the Sparks keeper topping the table for much of the tournament. The formula enables players to score or lose MVP points on every ball based on their expected performance for that ball in comparison to CricViz’s extensive historical database of 20-over fixtures, with the venue being played at also taken into account.
Jones also received an early present ahead of her 29th birthday on Monday, taking the £2,500 cash prize for topping the MVP, with MVP competition prize money equal across men’s and women’s domestic cricket.
Topping the run-charts with 289 runs at a strike-rate of 137, only her England teammate Danni Wyatt (152) hit at a better rate in the top 20 run-scorers in the competition. Jones also had the most dismissals with 12 however, that does not tell the full story with the MVP evaluating the importance of each run and dismissal taken.
The international secured three Match MVP awards in the group stage meaning she was statistically the best player on the pitch in half of the Sparks group games. Her best performance came against Sunrisers when she struck 80 off 49 balls, followed up by two catches and a stumping to give her 35 MVP points.
Jones continued her form on Finals Day, with nobody scoring more than her 44 runs across the two low scoring games.
With 129 MVP points, Jones finished 24 points clear of second placed Bryony Smith. The South East Stars all-rounder was in contention for the main individual award for much of the competition and was a standout in the play-off encounter as she took 4-14 at the County Ground, Northampton.
For the Vipers, they had five players in the top 20 with captain Georgia Adams finishing in third position of the competition MVP with 98 points. Wyatt came in eighth position with 79 points, just a single point ahead of Georgia Elwiss. Match MVP of the final Maia Bouchier ended in 11th spot with Charlie Dean finishing 18th also being key performers for Charlotte Edwards’ team who take home the trophy named after their Head Coach.
Domestic women’s cricket now turns to the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy which begins on 2 July with the Vipers looking to defend their crown and do the domestic double. The 50-over competition also has a £2,500 prize pot for the winner of the MVP with points accumulated also added to the Overall MVP which includes all cross-format domestic cricket and whoever comes top of the pile will receive a £7,500 prize.
View the women’s domestic MVP Rankings.
Follow @pcaMVP on Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest MVP news.
Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
