The 2009 Player of the Year Awards were announced and presented during the lunch break of the LV County Championship match between Yorkshire and Hampshire at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground today.
Andrew Gale took the top honour of Bradford & Bingley Player of the Year.
Bradford & Bingley Player of the Year Award
Andrew Gale
The big one - voted for by Yorkshire members and supporters through the Club website the biggest poll response we have ever had online. In 3rd place was Adil Rashid, 2nd place was Jacques Rudolph (the winner in 2007 and 2008).
Andrew has shown true Yorkshire grit in the Championship middle-order and Yorkshire sparkle at the top of the one-day side. He enjoyed a tremendous Twenty20 Cup campaign, has scored 827 Championship runs including two centuries and made his England Lions debut against Australia in July.
Players Player of the Year Award
Ajmal Shahzad
Voted for by his fellow players the recipient has had an excellent season with bat and ball. He has produced some tremendous one-day performances, scored 441 Championship runs with a career best 88 last week in Hove and taken 37 Championship wickets.
Young Player of the Year Award
Jonathan Bairstow
Voted for by the coaching staff - excellent performances for the Academy and the 2nd Team earned him his 1st Team debut against Somerset at Headingley Carnegie in June. 542 runs at 41.69 and some tidy performances with the gloves.
Academy Player of the Year
Gurman Randhawa
Voted for by the coaching staff - he has taken 63 wickets at 18.65 and scored 337 runs at 24.07 this season for the Academy and has taken great strides forward as a player.
Fielder of the Year
The Yorkshire coaching staff have not awarded a Fielder of the Year Award this seeason.
Other than Bairstow, I'm not sure I agree with any of the choices. Gale for player of the year is bizarre. He had a good second half. Rudolph is on to 2500 runs in all competitions and he doesn't get a nod in any category.
And not picking a best fielder is certainly a slap in the face. There are some good fielders on the team, and someone is the best. Very poor PR and an appalling way to motivate the players to improve.
Rudi was second - and he's won it for the last two years.
As discussed elsewhere I think Andy is a very worthy winner who has often held our innings' together.
Congratulations to Dewsbury-born Andrew Gale - not that I'm parochial or anything. I'm a bit gobsmacked that anyone could be gobsmacked by the decision. This has been a season of getting into holes and someone digging us out of them - occasionally Bairstow or the lower-middle order, but most often Gale.
Wouldn't this improve AJ's terms and conditions - not to mention his sense of self esteem - and help persuade him to stay?
Have we capped anyone this season?
We had over 1300 votes and (1) Andrew GALE polled 22%, (2) Jacques RUDOLPH 18%, (3) Adil RASHID 16%, (4) David WAINWRIGHT (10%), (5) Jonathan BAIRSTOW (7%), (6) Ajmal SHAHZAD 7%, (7) Joe SAYERS 4% and (8) Gerard BROPHY 4%.
Andrew led throughout the 4 weeks of the poll, but 2nd changed three or four times.
Running the poll over the last four weeks of the season as the YCCC did coincides with Gale's best performances of the year, whereas during that period Rudolph had 4 of his 5 ducks. Thus, the results are highly suspect and quite biased
The White Rose poll is much fairer and will probably yield a somewhat less biased result, since voters are more likely to base their choices on the the entire season. Next year I would suggest the club polls later, perhaps during the last week of the season and the week after the season ends.
To say Gale had a good last 4 weeks is ridiculous Gallup! He was strongest in the middle of the year around and after the Twenty20 Cup fixtures when he was excellent and showed quality attack and tough defence in equal measure. If the poll had been a last month of the season popularity contest then surely Wainwright or Shahzad would have won. Whether you agree with the result or not this is the time to congratulate Mr Gale for a fine season and wish him well. Two good matches cannot earn the award!
I suspect many of those who voted are simply saying that, though perhaps he's not the best batsman in the club, in a season of fairly stodgy fare they like the way Andrew Gale plays his cricket.
And a voting sample of 1300 is considerably broader than the 200 or so that we're likely to attract. The bigger the sample the more accurate reflection of members' views I would have thought?
It's worth pointing out that I only voted for him 160 times.
Bias is not reduced no matter how many people vote in a poll. The YCCC's poll was taken too early. Besides I note that the WRF has put up 200 votes in a few days, while the club's poll ran over a month.
Sorry chaps but I have to disagree with some of your comments on this.
In this situation a poll is more prone to bias if it runs for a few days rather than a few weeks. People are more likely to vote for the player who does well in the last few days rather than cast their minds all the way back to April and May and that tendency is reduced if the poll runs over the course of a few games.
The reason Take That seem to make it into people's Top 100 singles of all time is because they are the tune everyone is humming when they fill in the form. I don't feel Galey has benefitted from that kind of 'on your mind' voting as he has been pretty consistent all summer.
would it not be fairer to have a player of the month award (voted for when fresh in the mind) and then use the votes for these to total up for the player of the year as this then avoids late season biases and allows for those of us with poor memories of early season successes (were there any?)
Or as they do elsewhere, you could vote for a man of the match and then award points for 1st 2nd and 3rd and total up accordingly.
Most sports polls are done at the end of the season, when fans have ALL THE INFORMATION at hand. BY running the club's poll fully a month before the season ended, this would not have been the case.
I voted for Rudolph on the YCCC, before he went on his duck spree. If I had voted closer to the end of the season I might have gone with Joe Sayers or even David Wainwright.
Come on Mr. B, give the WRF credit where it is due.
And throw in the fact that the YCCC poll was terminated BEFORE the season was even ended.
Anyway both polls are valid in their own way, although starkly different in their results.
Lets face it, Rudi scored more than 2,500 runs in all competitions. He is our most outstanding player over all competitions and rose to the occasion when asked to open. This should not be close...he deserves to be Player of the Year. HE is the only player who we could not do without.
I like the idea of the Player of the Month where votes are cummulated across the season - think that may be how we tackle this next summer - if I'm still alive!!!