Tom Westley and Simon Harmer have been two of the top performers in domestic cricket during August and are up for the latest PCA Player of the Month awards.
The pair have been nominated as part of four nominees for the men’s awards and identified by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings, a bespoke algorithm, which was designed by the PCA, the players and CricViz to give the most accurate representation of the best players in the game.
Simon Harmer, Liam Livingstone, Tom Westley and Tim David are nominated for the penultimate men’s award of the 2021 season, whilst Eve Jones, Alice Capsey, Linsey Smith and Erin Burns are up for the equivalent women’s award.
The winners will be decided via a public vote on the PCA website, which will remain open until 2pm on Thursday 2 September.
Men’s PCA Player of the Month
Another bumper month of men’s domestic cricket saw the conclusion of both The Hundred and the Royal London Cup, before four Vitality Blast quarter-finals preceded the first two days of the latest round of LV= Insurance County Championship fixtures.
The MVP Rankings have highlighted the contribution of cross-format players, as each of this month’s four men’s nominees have appeared in multiple competitions during August.
Here is a brief summary of their individual highlights this month:
Simon Harmer (Essex)
Back-to-back Overall MVP Simon Harmer is never far from the top of the MVP Rankings, and that has been the case once again this month as he has totalled 112 MVP points – the most of any men’s domestic player during the same time period.
The off-spinner’s consistent quality has enabled him to claim at least one wicket in each of his eight outings this month, and multiple wickets on five occasions, including 3-46 during the first innings of Essex’s ongoing County Championship fixture against Glamorgan. Harmer will be looking to win his second Player of the Month award of the season, having previously claimed the prize in May.
Liam Livingstone (Lancashire and Birmingham Phoenix)
Liam Livingstone caps off a highly successful August from an individual perspective, having already been named The Hundred MVP on the 21st of the month. In total, he has scored 99.3 MVP points from his eight appearances in August – second only behind Harmer in terms of men’s domestic cricket.
The 28-year-old has excelled across three separate competitions, his individual highlight coming during Phoenix’s final group stage fixture against Northern Superchargers on the 17th. During that game, Livingstone smashed an unbeaten 92 and claimed 3-25 to score 45.8 MVP points – the highest total in a single fixture during the men’s Hundred.
Tom Westley (Essex)
Tom Westley joins his teammate Harmer in being nominated for the August PCA Player of the Month, having scored 96.8 MVP points from his eight appearances this month.
Like Harmer, Westley was a consistent performer during Essex’s Royal London Cup campaign, eventually finishing third in the RLC MVP behind only Harmer and eventual champion Scott Borthwick. Westley passed 50 on two occasions in the competition in August, and also chipped in with the ball claiming seven wickets at 25.1 apiece.
Tim David (Surrey and Southern Brave)
This month’s men’s line-up is completed by Surrey and Southern Brave man Tim David, who scored 96.6 MVP points from his nine appearances during August.
The bulk of David’s MVP points tally derived from a sensational spell of form in the Royal London Cup which saw him make consecutive scores of 140 not out, 52 not out and 102 in the space of five days. David also proved an unlikely hero for Brave during the final stages of the men’s Hundred, producing a game-changing run out of Livingstone to reverse the direction of the final, having only been drafted into the squad for the eliminator fixture one day previously.
