Holding, Dunkley, Brook and Capsey celebrated by CWC

Luke Fletcher and Alex Jervis are among the other winners at the annual Cricket Writers' Club awards

Harry Brook, Sophia Dunkley, Luke Fletcher and Alice Capsey are among the winners at the 2021 Cricket Writers’ Club (CWC) awards, with Michael Holding, Alex Jervis and Peter Greenslade also being honoured. 

Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers batter Brook picked up the NV Play Young Cricketer of the Year award, while England’s Sophia Dunkley claimed the JM Finn Women’s Cricket Award.

Luke Fletcher of Nottinghamshire scooped up the LV= Insurance County Championship Player of the Year, and 17-year-old Alice Capsey became the inaugural winner of the Sumaridge Estate Wines Emerging Cricketer of the Year prize.

Brook, 22, adds the CWC Young Cricketer award to a trophy cabinet that already contains the PCA Men’s Young Player award, after a breakthrough season that saw him dominate across formats. His 1,286 Championship runs came at an average of 38, while he ended the inaugural edition of The Hundred as one of its top 10 run-scorers despite only batting five times. 

“I wrote down a few notes at the start of the year about what I wanted to achieve and the runs I wanted to get in different formats, and I nailed that,” the right-hander said.

“I still think Test cricket is the pinnacle. To play Test cricket is the best standard you can play but there is a lot of excitement in franchise cricket as well.”

Dunkley, meanwhile, caps off a remarkable season in which the all-rounder made both Test and ODI debuts for England, as well as firing Southern Brave to the very first Women’s Hundred final. The 23-year-old became the first black woman to play Test cricket for England, a feat which the South East Stars player didn’t fully absorb until after the fact.

“It wasn't until after the game that I took in what it meant,” she said. “It's something I'm very proud of looking back now.“

“There have been a lot of highlights for me this summer but making my Test debut was obviously very special, they don't come around that often in the women's game. To go on to make my ODI debut was also something I had dreamt of growing up as well.”

Elsewhere, Fletcher hailed a season he “couldn’t have dreamt” after his 66 scalps made him the Championship’s leading wicket-taker. The seamer credits his lack of red-ball game time last season with his success in 2021, claiming his 2020 “probably took all the pressure off me and I went into this season just wanting to enjoy it. I couldn't have dreamt this season - I've never taken 50 wickets in a season before so to take 66 is insane really.“

^{Alice Capsey continues to rack up the honours following a fine campaign}

Teenager Capsey’s extraordinary success has been well-documented, winning both the Hundred and the Charlotte Edwards Cup, as well as picking up the PCA Young Women’s Player award in its first year. The CWC award becomes the second inaugural award the all-rounder has picked up in the last few weeks: for a schoolgirl who is not yet a fully contracted professional, this is no mean feat.

“It's been incredible, a really special summer to be part of and one I'll remember for a very long time,“ Capsey said. ”To end the season with two trophies is great.

“It was really special to be at Lord's and to get a fifty was incredible...I loved being in front of the crowd and I felt like I belonged there. It was uplifting.”

Jervis was crowned Lords Taverners Disability Cricketer of the year for his tireless work off the field, in a season where the pandemic limited his appearances. Jervis threw himself into coaching, administration, and scouting, as he helped Yorkshire’s D40 side take part in their first championship for a number of years.

^{Holding is stepping down after 31 years in the commentary box}

“It's great to receive this award but it's not about the recognition,” the Yorkshireman said. “It's important for young people to have role models in the game so if you have got a physical disability, learning disability or a visual impairment; you know there is a game of cricket for you.”

Off the pitch, Michael Holding was presented with the Peter Smith Award, honouring his “outstanding contribution” to the presentation of cricket to the public. The West Indian, who recently confirmed his retirement from commentary after 31 years, was praised by the CWC panel for his “unmistakable voice and his trenchant yet fair opinions”, singling out his “searing words on racism and the Black Lives Matter movement” as having “opened eyes and ears around the world”.

The iconic commentator aired his displeasure with the direction the game is taking upon receiving the award, saying: “I am very disappointed in the people who are running it and the people managing it, and I won’t miss it when I go. I’ll miss the friendships that I’ve made, I’ll miss the great people I work with, but I won’t miss the game, because this game is not the game that I started playing and the game that I knew. It’s different.”

Subscribe to The Cricketer for exclusive content every day: The inside track on England's Test tour with George Dobell in Pakistan, award-winning analysis, breaking news and interviews and the only place for in-depth county coverage all year round. Plus: An ad-free app experience at your fingertips. Subscribe to thecricketer.com today for just £1.