*Official* Season 3 WCC Awards Night

[Simon]

Welcome all to the Third and final WCC awards night. With the recent news that World Club Cricket will not continue into the future this will be the last time we gather to celebrate the achievements of our stars.

We'll get right into the awards with the WCC Rookie of the Year. As usual there were some talented youngsters come into the game for season three, this was a very toug decision this season but the winner deserves his recognition. After being one of the first draft picks Yorkshire all rounder EP Van Wyk had a lot of pressure coming into the season but he lived up to his potential and is awarded the trophy. His First Class performances were impressive in particular, in 14 matches he scored 636 runs @ 35.33 including two sensational centuries and he also took a club high 65 wickets @ 22.60.

 

[Simon]

Our second award for the night is the One Day Division 2 player of the year, this guy has been a star in WCC and he himself was the first winner of the rookie of the year award, he has progressed into one of the finest batsmen in the game and after scoring a WCC record season high tally of 1107 runs @ 92.25 the winner is A Holland of Titans. Holland was a standout for this award, he posted 11 scored above 50 in his 14 times at bat which including another WCC record of six centuries, while Titans didn't have a great season if it wasn't for Holland then chances are they wouldn't have won a One Day
match at all.

 

[Simon]

One of the most disappointing things about the end of WCC is the fact that we won't get to see our up and coming academy stars become WCC heroes. With this award we celebrate all that is the Academy competition. The Academy player of the year award has been won by some fine players including current South Australian star K Demming, this year’s winner however is Anguilla batsman R Baldry. Baldry was far and away the stand out batsman in the competition, the opener was potent in both forms of the game. In 11 One Day matches he compiled 454 @ 45.40 including two centuries while it was First Class where he made a name for himself by being the only batsman to score
1000 runs in the competition as he made 1148 runs @ 52.18.

 

[Simon]

Our next award of the night is for the One Day Division 1 player of the year, this was a hotly contested award with great performances from all teams with both bat and ball, at the end of the day the judges decided that it was bowling that made a difference in this league and awarded the title to North Zone Indian rookie R Wilson. Playing in his first season of WCC Wilson claimed a record equalling 25 scalps @ 22.52. The quick bowler put in some impressive performances on the usually spinner friendly NZI wicket so he thoroughly deserves this award.

 

[Simon]

This season the second ever Twenty20 competition was held in WCC. The trophy was eventually won by Queensland but there were some great performances across the board. South Australia's bowlers were impressive throughout the tournament and were successful in getting their team to the final where they unfortunately failed. The one player who stood out above his rival was spinner C Bailey and he wins the award for Twenty20 Player of the Year. Stuck in the WCC wilderness for the best part of the two seasons Bailey made a name for himself in the short forms of the game this year and with his season high 13 wickets @ 12.62 has justified the managers faith in keeping him on board.

 

[Simon]

We will now announce the One Day Team of the Year; it is:
1 A Holland (Titans) 1107 @ 92.95
2 I Bowes (Kandurata) 1080 @ 90.00
3 E Stollmeyer (Kandurata) 813 @ 90.33
4 R Bacon (Cobras) 839 @ 104.88
5 B Watts (South Australia) 959 @ 95.90
6 N Bradfield (Kent)+ 709 @ 64.45
7 B Casson (New South Wales) 229 @ 57.25 & 17 @ 31.53
8 C Langeveldt (Queensland) 25 @ 24.28
9 S Bond (Auckland) 23 @ 19.22
10 R Wilson (North Zone India) 25 @ 22.52
11 S Prasanna (Cobras) 25 @ 25.08

 

[Simon]

Now we get to the awards for the longer form of the game, our First Class Division 2 player of the Year award. There were again many good candidates for this award and the judges had a hard time picking the winner, after many discussions they have given the title to West Midlands speedster B Rankin. The Irishman playing in his first full season of WCC took a record breaking 79 wickets @ 24.11. While he didn't have the best average of the bowling candidates it was his key wickets that were taken into consideration. He lead his side into the playoff position and he no doubt would have been a hand full for the division 1 batsman next season if he had a chance.

 

[Simon]

The following award is always one of the more speculated, "Most outstanding on field performance of the season". This year’s winner will come as quite a shock to most as at the time the performance didn't even warrant nomination as a player of the week. This award goes to New South Wales spinner come batsman B Casson for his performance in the One Day Round 6 match against Victoria. Chasing 281 for the win Casson came in at 6/129 with the game gone, however he batted masterfully with the rest of the tail to win the game in the final over, Casson finished 98* off 88 balls and shared in an unbroken 68 runs stand for the final wicket with fast bowler D Gamage. A truly great performance by Casson.

 

[Simon]

The next award if for the First Class Division 1 Player of the Year. There were some more top performances in this division, in somewhat of a surprise it was the bowlers most weeks grabbing the headlines and the top batsmen here struggled, however one rose above the others and finished the division with the most runs, scoring 1414 runs @ 54.38 including 3 hundreds and 9 fifties the winner is New South Wales opener P Hughes. Hughes again showed his class highlighted by his highest first class score of 244 earlier in the season, he proved to be one of the top batsmen during his time in WCC and it's a shame we won't get to see players like him perform anymore.

 

[Simon]

We will now name the First Class team of the Year; it is:
1 P Hughes (New South Wales) 1414 @ 54.38
2 H Raza (Victoria) 1463 @ 56.27
3 M Love (South Australia) 1369 @ 57.04
4 R Jones (Auckland) 1196 @ 52.00
5 B Hodge (Victoria) 1378 @ 55.12
6 R Fitzpatrick (Kent)+ 1044 @ 58.00
7 EP Van Wyk (Yorkshire) 636 @ 35.33 & 25.60
8 B Rankin (West Midlands) 79 @ 24.11
9 B Walters (New South Wales) 67 @ 21.81
10 LF Simpson (Titans) 67 @ 18.66
11 M Muralitharan (Kandurata) 75 @ 25.67

 

[Simon]

This year we have a new winner for the manager of the Year award. A title held by Kandurata manager Chaminda_00 for the past two seasons the judging panel have decided this trophy will go to a new home. On the back of some skilled bowling performances and impressive batting efforts Yorkshire easily finished top of the First Class Division 2 pile, they also put together a strong end of season in One Day to finish third in the Division 1 competition. All in all you could describe it as a very good season for Greg Thomas and he is the winner of this award, well done to him.

 

[Simon]

Now we will give out the final award of the night, the prestigious WCC Player of the Year award. Previous winners of this trophy G Smith of Cobras and M Hayden of Queensland failed to feature high in this year’s voting so we will have our third winner. The judges again had a hard time giving out this award as there were so many worthy players across both forms of the game, this trophy has traditionally gone to a player who has performed in both forms of the game and this season is no different. So without further a-do collecting his second trophy of the night is Yorkshire all rounder EP Van Wyk. The young rookie becomes the first English based winner of this award and the second South African national. Van Wyk's first class efforts were alluded to earlier in the show and he followed that up by being selected in the team of the season, however his bowling efforts in One Day cricket shouldn't be neglected. He was the clubs third highest wicket taker with 22 wickets @ 26.09 making him one of the most successful bowlers of the season.

With that the end of WCC has come, it has been a fitting end to a great competition and well done to all of tonight's winners.

 

[NZTailender]

Awesome, thanks Simon. Didn't expect the manager of the year award! Am very grateful and it's great to see van Wyk was player of the year