Sunday 25 September 2016 15:47, UK
Another superb summer of cricket has come to an end with Middlesex’s thrilling County Championship title win proving a fitting finale.
Warwickshire and Northamptonshire took the other domestic silverware on offer this season, winning the Royal London One-Day Cup and the Natwest T20 Blast, respectively.
Meanwhile, on the international stage England proved too strong for Sri Lanka in all three formats, played out a fantastic drawn Test series with Pakistan before racking up a world record total in the ODI series that followed.
With all that in mind, David Lloyd, Nasser Hussain, Rob Key and Paul Allott were tasked with dishing out the end of season awards - although consensus was hard to come by!
Read on to see who caught the Sky Sports pundits' eyes this summer...
Lloyd: Jonny Bairstow's century at Lord's was terrific. It was great for him and his family, a great celebration and it rivalled his one in Cape Town. He was in great nick, so I'm going for him.
Key: It's hard to look past Joe Root's double hundred at Old Trafford. It was an outstanding knock and so I'm going with him.
Hussain: I'm surrounded by old 'uns here, so I'm going to go for 42-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq. Doing the press-ups after getting a hundred in his first Test at Lord's, his first Test in England. Leading from the front and guiding his side to No 1 in the world. The Bah!
Allott: Durham batting on the last day of the season to keep Lancashire in Division One!
Lloyd: Keaton Jennings from Durham. He's had a fabulous season in Division One at the top of the innings, playing half his season at Durham where batting can be tricky.
Allott: Haseeb Hameed. His first season and he's scored four hundreds, two in a Roses match and he's gone all the way and got picked for the England tour this winter.
Hussain: Ben Duckett. He's played in all formats - four-day cricket, one-day cricket, T20 and he's gone and smashed it for the Lions as well.
Key: Joe Root would have to be up there, getting into the top five of the world rankings in all three formats. But I tell you who has batted very well - Moeen Ali. Whether he is the batsman of the season, I don't know but I think he bats four or five this winter for England.
Key: Mark Wood at Durham. I thought he was unbelievable when he came back. Durham were average in the T20 when we saw them earlier in the season and he came into that team and transformed them. He was the best bowler I've seen in domestic cricket.
Hussain: Chris Woakes for me, with all the wickets he took. Every time he bowled he seemed to take wickets. This summer he has achieved more than perhaps he or anyone else thought he could. It's been an incredible turnaround from what he did in the winter to what he's done this summer. That is some achievement.
Allott: I'll go with Woakes as well. I thought the improvement was phenomenal, the confidence he's got and the pace he's got - he's increased his pace which has really helped.
Lloyd: Jack Leach. He's been playing on a spinning pitch at Taunton, it hasn't usually spun there but he has taken on that obligation and responsibility to take wickets. I like the way he can bowl with fielders around the bat. On pitches like that he had to do it and he had to deliver - and he did.
Hussain: Haseeb Hameed - he wasn't selected for an Under-19 trip last December and there won't have been many - he might be the only one - who wasn't selected for the Under-19s and then six months later he gets picked for the main England side.
Allott: He was left out of the Under-19 World Cup squad and that was the spur that made him think 'I'll show them' and he has.
Lloyd: England's 444 in the one-day international against Pakistan at Trent Bridge. It was terrific entertainment. It's funny that some people said 'that's not entertainment, just lobbing it up and hitting them into the stand' - I thought it was great! And somebody will get 500 one day!
Key: Alex Hales obviously got 171 - the highest individual score by an England batsmen in an ODI - but Jos Buttler was brilliant that day, he got 90 off 51 balls. He is different class.
Lloyd: The best catch was a spectator winning a trip to Australia at Cardiff - what a catch that was! He just leaned over and took it diving forward. Brilliant catch!
Lloyd: Warwickshire were underachievers because when the County Championship started and you saw Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott in their side, they looked like they were going to be serious contenders this season and they have fallen away really. They've also got Keith Barker, the left-arm opening bowler who is right up there as MVP (Most Valuable Player) and Jeetan Patel - the best off-spinner in county cricket - and right up until the last game they were thinking about relegation.
Key: Northants winning the T20 Blast. I think they're a good side but they've had so much financial turmoil, they've lost players and still been the best team in T20 cricket this season.
Hussain: On the first day of the first game we did at Trent Bridge, I spoke to Rob Key, who has recently retired, and asked who we should look out for and he said Ben Duckett. An early call from nowhere, six months later and he might be opening the batting for England.
Allott: We had two on the final day at Lord's.
Hussain: We did, Alex Lees came on to bowl a few lob-ups and ended up with two wickets!
Hussain: Lloyd head-butting the match referee at the toss. For years he's gone about 'how difficult can it be to do a toss? Anybody can do that.' Then he decides as part of the toss he's going to head-butt Richie Richardson to start the game off.
Lloyd: I find it very strange that I've not been asked to do a toss since! I came back and said 'Well that went well, didn't it?' I didn't know I'd head-butted the ref - not until I saw him being stretchered out.
Key: I was with some of the Kent boys when Bumble flew into Sam Billings in the Pod, saying that he owns Kent.
Lloyd: He owns Kent and he's just buying Wembley, he's got his own Olympic size swimming pool and he's opening his own golf course - in fact, he owns the south east of England, Sam Billings!
Hussain: Ian Ward and Curtly Ambrose's height difference playing basketball was reasonably amusing too.
Allott: He definitely needed a box to stand on there.
Hussain: I thought the Pod was a magnificent innovation this summer, in the T20. Having the players coming in, the speed of the game and the noises of the game was outstanding. I enjoyed every minute of the Pod, even the freezing cold minutes.
Allott: Best dancing - Rob Key in the laundromat. Definitely. There is no question about it.
Hussain: Bumble in the Pod too. Doing the sort of wrestler dance thing, I have no idea what he was doing!
Lloyd: Neither did I! You get to my age and you do look puzzled and perplexed.
Lloyd: It's got to be Nasser and AB de Villiers! 'Oh, you're brilliant AB!'
Hussain: You've stuffed me here! Who asked you to ask that question!?
Lloyd: 'You're brilliant at tennis, look at you play golf there. Oh, I wish I was you, AB! Can you play a reverse sweep, AB? Oh wow, how far has that gone?'
Lloyd: It was getting very deep and meaningful with Imran Khan, two educated lads with Michael Atherton interviewing him but you could tell that there was something going on. The shot was from waist up and what was happening was that Imran's dog was getting very affectionate with Michael Atherton's leg!
