England captain Joe Root named cinch PCA Men's Player of the Year after stunning form in red-ball cricket; Eve Jones becomes first domestic player to claim Women's award; 17-year-old Alice Capsey inaugural winner of PCA Women's Young Player of the Year; Harry Brook lands men's award
Tuesday 28 September 2021 11:57, UK
Joe Root and Eve Jones have been named Men's and Women's cinch PCA Players of the Year respectively with Harry Brook and Alice Capsey winning the Young Player accolades.
England Test captain Root scored hundreds in three successive matches against India and ended the Test summer with 661 runs in six games an average of 66.10.
Root - also named LV= Insurance Test Player of the Summer for the first time - has scored 1,455 Test runs in 2021 at an average of 66.13, with his winter including two double hundreds and a score of 186 across the assignments in Sri Lanka and India.
Root beat off competition from Durham's David Bedingham, Nottinghamshire's Luke Fletcher and Essex's Simon Harmer to scoop the player-voted Men's Player of the Year prize.
Jones, meanwhile, is the first female domestic player to win one of the main cinch PCA Awards after a superb summer for Central Sparks and Birmingham Phoenix.
The 29-year-old batter fended off challenges from England's Sophia Dunkley and Nat Sciver and Western Storm's Danielle Gibson for PCA Women's Player of the Summer, an award only previously won by England players.
Jones amassed over 800 runs combined for Sparks in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup and Phoenix in the inaugural edition of The Hundred.
Seventeen-year-old Capsey is the first winner of the cinch PCA Women's Young Player of the Year prize and the youngest-ever player to win one of the PCA's player-voted awards.
Capsey claimed the gong ahead of Dunkley and Charlie Dean after contributing with bat and ball to help South East Stars win the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Oval Invincibles triumph in The Hundred.
The all-rounder took 10 wickets and scored 150 runs in The Hundred, with a highlight a half-century against London Spirit at Lord's when she was just 16, while she hit 203 runs and took seven wickets in Stars' Charlotte Edwards Cup success.
The Men's Young Player of the Year award went to Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers' Harry Brook, who edged out Essex's Sam Cook and Sussex's Tom Haines.
Brook, 22, was the fourth-highest run-scorer in the Vitality Blast with 486 runs at an average of 69.40, while he finished among the top 10 run-scorers in The Hundred despite only having five innings.
cinch PCA Men's Player of the Year, JOE ROOT: "It means a huge amount to be recognised by your fellow professionals. For them to vote for me is really quite humbling. A lot of my heroes when I was growing up are on that trophy so I'm chuffed to be alongside them.
"I've been in good touch and had a good understanding of how I wanted to score my runs this year. I've scored runs against the best teams in the world so that has given me confidence, even as an experienced player.
"Ultimately, it's about winning for England and putting in performances that will win you Test matches. That's the best feeling - when you walk off the pitch knowing you've put in a performance that has won your side the game. You want to replicate that and it really acts as a driving force."
cinch PCA Women's Player of the Year EVE JONES: "It's been a long time coming for a lot of the girls to dedicate more time to playing and training, so I've thoroughly enjoyed being a professional. Having cricket as my main career is something that I've dreamed of for a long time.
"It's been great to be a part of the PCA. The support we get is fantastic and it's really helped us to transition from semi-professional to professional cricket. It's been great to chat to them and pick their brains about how to be a full-time cricketer.
"I'd love to play for England and put that shirt on one day. But if it doesn't, I'm having the best time of my life and I'll still relish the opportunities to play cricket around the world."
cinch PCA Women's Young Player of the Year, ALICE CAPSEY: "When I got the phone call it hadn't even been something that I'd processed in my mind. I can't really put it into words. I'm not even a PCA member yet so to win the award is just incredible. It's a huge honour and it will probably be the one of the best awards that I win in my career.
"To be the first person to have your name engraved on the trophy will be really special. Michael Atherton had an amazing career after winning the first cinch PCA Men's Young Player of the Year.
"There are so many big names on all of the trophies, hopefully I can live up to it and I'll be happy if I can get close to some of them. This year has been the best summer I've had, and to experience that with my friends and teammates has been incredible - I'll remember it for a very long time."
cinch PCA Men's Young Player of the Year, HARRY BROOK: "I really look up to the likes of Joe Root. You can learn so much from such a good player, and you try to take parts of their game and put it into yours. I'll pick the best players from around the world and try to put parts of their game into mine.
"The Hundred has given me the opportunity to play alongside the likes of Ben Stokes and Chris Lynn. When you're around players like that you can learn so much, and playing against the best players on the biggest stage gets you used to that pressure.
"The best players back it up year after year and hopefully I can do that. There's still things to work on in my game and there's a big winter coming up where I can try to become better and better."
