The Cricketer's team of writers pick their standout players from the 2019 county summer...
County bowler of the season: Simon Harmer has been magnificent again. The signing of the century.
County batsman of the season: Dominic Sibley. Like Rory Burns before him, he is forcing the selectors’ hands through sheer weight of runs. Has a Test temperament.
Red-ball player of the season: Harmer’s wickets have been the key factor in Essex’s title.
White-ball player of the season: Ravi Bopara has reinvented himself magnificently. People were saying he was finished a year or two back.
Breakthrough player of the season: Tom Banton is a hugely exciting talent and I cannot wait to see him play for England.
Lesson to learn from 2019: The Blast has been entertaining this year (although the standard was variable, especially some of the fielding). It needs to be ensured that by introducing The Hundred, English cricket is not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
One wish for 2020 domestic season: Blast finals day should be before The Hundred starts. And that we have some Championship cricket when The Hundred takes place so players have a way of finding form/pressing their case for the Tests.
Tom Banton
County bowler of the season: Darren Stevens. The Kent allrounder has proved there is a place for subtlety and skill.
County batsman of the season: Sam Hain. A career-best return in 2019 for the talent right-hander who Ashley Giles has already tipped for international honours.
Red-ball player of the season: The performances from forty-three-years-young Stevens have redefined what is possible.
White-ball player of the season: Tom Banton is an epic ball-striker. Comparisons with Kevin Pietersen are far from hyperbole.
Breakthrough player of the season: Henry Brookes has fully recovered from a back problem and is one of the positives from a difficult campaign at Edgbaston.
Lesson to learn from 2019: Less than a quarter of all County Championship fixtures were played between June and August this season. A once-cherished format does not deserve to be pushed to the fringes of the season.
One wish for 2020 domestic season: The Hundred is an unparalleled success. It has some major flaws but cricket is struggling. This could be the silver bullet.
Darren Stevens
County bowler of the season: Simon Harmer has become a quite extraordinary cricketer. A match-winning, attitude-changing captain of Essex's T20 success, but a staggeringly consistent bowler across all formats. A tally of 83 County Championship wickets is some feat in a year that saw much of the red-ball cricket played in less than ideal conditions for any finger-spinner. Will go down in history as one of the great county signings.
County batsman of the season: Dom Sibley. A couple of contenders here, with one in each division. Marnus Labuschagne is still Division Two's top run-scorer despite departing in July to join up with Australia's Ashes party. That Glamorgan's promotion bid has faltered so greatly since gives some fairly concrete indication of his own significance. His efforts against England - especially in a defiant match-saving fifty at Lord's - were a wonderful fillip for the value of domestic red-ball cricket.
In Sibley, however, England have an opening batsman who churns out runs without either fuss or flourish. Ballsy, resilient, unshakeable, he is all that Joe Root's side has been searching for. More importantly though, he has battered the door down. He deserves his chance. If it doesn't work out, it was not for a lack of trying. His selection must be the way forward - perform in county cricket, you'll be rewarded.
Red-ball player of the season: Darren Stevens/Adam Rossington. Two left-field choices, perhaps, but a merited doff of the cap to a 43-year-old still improving with age and to an unheralded leader, who has achieved the improbable.
After being told that his time with Kent was up, Darren Stevens churned out a run-a-ball double hundred and three five-wicket hauls. The external clamour may well have helped, but his form was too great to ignore – he put pen to paper on a new deal last week. Only WG Grace has scored a first-class 200 at a greater age. 597 runs and 52 wickets – some effort at any age.
Northants' Adam Rossington is my other nominee. After initially standing in as captain after Alex Wakely resigned with Northants sat winless at the bottom of Division Two, he has salvaged his club. The wicketkeeper – and now permanent skipper – has dragged his maligned squad to promotion. An unbelievable effort from a massively underrated cricketer.
White-ball player of the season: Tom Banton. Absolutely a man who has broken through this season, but Tom Banton's efforts warrant more. A Royal London Cup campaign that offered glimpses of his talent came to a head with an imperious 69 in the competition's last Lord's final, before he set his sights on the T20 Blast. Only Babar Azam made more runs in the entire tournament as Banton's rampant fearlessness ran riot. Genuinely cannot wait to see him in England colours.
Breakthrough player of the season: Ravi Bopara 2.0. Controversial, if only because he's no spring chicken. But at 34, Ravi Bopara has broken through as a transformed version of his former self. The sole reason that Essex reached Finals Day and a major factor in their success at Edgbaston. He could have close to a decade ahead of him in the shortest format as he approaches what he believes are his prime years as a T20 hitter.
Lesson to learn from 2019: Milk it for all it's been worth. What a summer – internationally and domestically. We've never had it so good and, looking forward, it's a period this sport in this country will do well to come close to replicating.
One wish for 2020 domestic season: Let’s have some red-ball cricket at a sensible time. Please. Pretty please.
Ryan Higgins
County bowler of the season: Simon Harmer. 10 five-wicket hauls (four more than his nearest rival) and 83 wickets as he spun Essex to their second Championship title inside three years is an incredible shift. If you want to throw in the white-ball stuff as well, then you can add another 17 in the T20 Blast including a record 7-35 across both matches on Finals Day.
County batsman of the season: Dom Sibley. Stack those runs up and you’ve got a chance. By the end of the season Sibley had amassed a towering 1,324 at an average of 69.68. His unbeaten hundred against Hampshire at Edgbaston made it a remarkable run of centuries in six successive first-class matches. The masses would have been lighting torches and marching on ECB towers had the Warwickshire man not been selected for the New Zealand tour.
Red-ball player of the season: Ryan Higgins. 24-year-old Higgins has enjoyed a monster season for Gloucestershire, racking up 958 runs - including a career-best 199 against Leicestershire - and taking 50 wickets at 23.64. Gloucestershire have moved quickly to secure the Harare-born allrounder’s services for the long term, signing the former Middlesex man until the end of the 2023 season.
White-ball player of the season: Tom Banton. Billy Godleman is unlucky to miss out here but Banton’s ballistic approach to professionally hacking white leather to all parts of the ground is thrilling to watch. Having struck 1,000+ runs and three hundreds across both white-ball competitions this summer, he has rightfully been given a go with England. It will be gripping to see how quickly he stamps his attitude on the international stage.
Breakthrough player of the season: Rob Yates. With Jonathan Trott hanging up his gloves and Ian Bell missing the entire campaign through injury, Warwickshire have had to look to the future. Warwick School product Yates has given them much to be hopeful for on that front. The 19-year-old batsman has looked assured in his debut first-class campaign, scoring 570 Championship runs at 30 and registering his maiden first-class century (141) against Somerset at Edgbaston in August. A hundred Paul Farbrace said he expects to be “the first of many that we see from him in a Warwickshire shirt.” Other players may have had more eye-catching, breakout-style campaigns, but in terms of a young lad appearing on the first-class stage for the first time, Yates is certainly one to keep an eye on.
Lesson to learn from 2019: It’s never over until that large lass gets the vocal chords going. 2019: Year of the Death Finishes.
One wish for 2020 domestic season: That calendar is looking awfully busy isn’t it? Let’s hope the schedule is not a total omnishambles…
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