Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Rob Yates and Ryana MacDonald-Gay lead April MVP Rankings.
Domestic cricket is back with a bang, despite the April weather, and you can now vote for your first PCA Player of the Month awards of 2024.
The top four men’s and women’s domestic players have been announced using the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by Argentex, with the opening awards of the season up for grabs.
Warwickshire’s Rob Yates has proved is capabilities with bat and ball to lead April’s MVP Rankings on 137 points in the men’s game. Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper-batter Joe Clarke sits in second with Yates’ teammate Alex Davies in third and Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins securing the final spot in a competitive top four for April’s award.
For the women’s award, 20-year-old Ryana MacDonald-Gay tops the table with South East Stars teammate Tash Farrant in second. Northern Diamonds keeper-batter Lauren Winfield-Hill has enjoyed a strong start to the season with Western Storm’s Australian overseas Amanda-Jade Wellington completing an impressive top four.
The players are selected by the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by Argentex, which picks out the game’s top performers across every single fixture. This then forms the rankings for each competition, as well as an overall table which is how the top four is selected. The MVP takes into account batting, bowling and fielding contributions as well as match defining contributions using a unique algorithm developed with CricViz.
New for 2024, the PCA Player of the Month is to be decided by a 50:50 split between the PCA MVP Rankings and the public vote – with the poll closing on 1 May at 9.30pm below. With a short window to have your say, vote now to pick your winner of the April awards.
The month of April saw the beginning of the Vitality County Championship in the men’s game with Essex and last year’s champions Surrey starting strongly as the latter attempts to win a third title in a row.
Rob Yates (Warwickshire)
Scoring an impressive 386 runs alongside portraying his all-round capabilities with 11 wickets, Yates tops the rankings with 137 MVP points.
The 24-year-old secured two Match MVP awards, the most impressive of which coming against Durham by scoring 191 and taking seven wickets, earning 67 MVP points – the most of any Match MVP this year.
Joe Clarke (Nottinghamshire)
Second in the County Championship leading run scorers with 480 runs, including an incredible three hundreds, Clarke has secured 116 MVP points.
The 27-year-old earned a Match MVP award against Somerset for 39 and an unbeaten 213, gaining a further 56 MVP points.
Alex Davies (Warwickshire)
Leading the run-scoring charts in Division One and ahead of Clarke by a single run is Davies with 481, the Warwickshire skipper has secured 105 MVP points in April.
The 29-year-old produced a fabulous knock against Durham scoring 256 as Warwickshire amassed 698-3, as well as scoring 149 against Hampshire.
Ryan Higgins (Middlesex)
The Middlesex all-rounder won the April Player of the Month last year and has scored 448 runs and taken nine wickets this time around, gaining him 102 MVP points.
The 29-year-old picked up a Match MVP award against Gloucestershire, earning 40 MVP points for his 30 and 155, he also scored 221 against Glamorgan.
Women’s PCA Player of the Month
To help inform your decision on who to vote for in the women’s category, below is a quick glance at the four nominees in April as the South East Stars made a perfect start to the season with three consecutive wins, highlighted by two of their players being in the top four.
Ryana MacDonald-Gay (South East Stars)
The right-arm pace bowler has enjoyed a phenomenal start to the season leading the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy wickets table with 12 dismissals, earning 59 MVP points.
The 20-year-old secured a Match MVP against Central Sparks thanks to figures of 4-18 and earned new career best figures, taking 5-31 in a Stars victory against The Blaze.
Tash Farrant (South East Stars)
The left-hander has taken full advantage of her promotion to open the batting and leads the run scoring table in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy with 216 runs at an average of 108, earning 56 MVP points.
The 27-year-old scored a career best 94 against Southern Vipers in another Stars win.
Lauren Winfield-Hill (Northern Diamonds)
The wicketkeeper-batter has scored 164 runs at an average of 82, earning 36 MVP points with the bat and 11 behind the stumps.
The 33-year-old picked up two Match MVP awards, the most impressive coming against Southern Vipers for 63 off 62 balls, alongside two catches and a stumping, securing 25 points.
Amanda-Jade Wellington (Western Storm)
The Australian leg-spinner has shown her all-round capabilities earning 47 MVP points in April.
Scoring 63 runs at a strike-rate of 118.9 and taking six with an average of 16.7, including 3-30 against Northern Diamonds, the 26-year-old is a more than useful asset for Western Storm.
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.
