Stuart Broad's SPOTY recognition proof cricket does exist outside of showcase events

NICK HOWSON: The year of 2020 hasn't been a vintage one for the Nottinghamshire seamer but the sport deserves acknowledgement

• Broad nominated for Sports Personality of the Year

Perhaps with the exception of the John Lewis advert and Vicar of Dibley festive specials, in 2020 Sports Personality of the Year feels like the least important of least important things. Watching the BBC attempt to piece together packages using their rivals' footage as Gary Lineker and Clare Balding stand two meters apart in an empty studio, speaking to sportspeople via Zoom is an unwanted Christmas cocktail served five days early on December 20. I can't wait.

Without Max Whitlock to straddle of a pommel horse, Tom Daley to dive into Gabby Logan's arms or James Toseland to perform The Entertainer, who will create the jeopardy and excitement? Whose mic will be on mute? Whose unruly children will take centre-stage during the interview? How will Noel Gallagher stink the place out at home?

Whether we stay engaged throughout the entire evening or not, this is an award which is debated and derided with equal vigour and passion. Whether we like it or not, it has a place in the nation's conscience. This will be the 66th edition but not since Great Britain turned up to Olympic Games cap in hand will the shortlist look quite so threadbare.

It is a pleasant sight to see a cricketer on the shortlist. A combination of Tokyo and Euro 2020, a Ryder Cup, Lewis Hamilton and Tyson Fury should have seen our game squeezed onto the fringes. Or in other words, that bit that Dan Walker does. That would have been fine given how Ben Stokes owned 2019.

^{Andrew Flintoff was named in the top three two years in a row - winning in 2005}

Though the T20 World Cup was postponed, elite cricket has flourished while other sports have been forced onto the back-foot. Stuart Broad's place as one of the six contenders for the prize might be somewhat fortuitous but he'll be representing his entire sport on the night and if and when he's presented with the award, presumably by girlfriend Mollie King.

That isn't to say that Broad, now 34, doesn't deserve to be regarded as one of Britain's best sportspeople of 2020. Since the start of last year, his 81 Test wickets have come at 19.93. Following a reinvention, he is arguably in the form of his life, devoted purely to red-ball cricket and the results have followed. After a verbal joust with the selectors, he ended up going to 500 against West Indies and England's all-time wicket-taker James Anderson is firmly in his sights. It might be that 2021 is even better.

Such a huge honour to be nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2020. Thanks @gregjames & @thebodycoach for announcing. Right- back to the cricket nets! 🏏
Thank You! #SPOTY pic.twitter.com/VO7L5yIY1H

— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) December 1, 2020

It could be argued that this year wasn't even the height of Broad's career, even if it did include a remarkable milestone. Many will recall spells in the 2009 and 2015 Ashes at the Oval and Trent Bridge. Even last year's dominance of David Warner sits above his 2020 achievements. And a penny for the thoughts of Anderson, the latest member of the 600 club, and Zak Crawley after his mesmeric double century in Southampton.

Recognition for cricket outside of either a World Cup or Ashes year is rare, not least due to a calendar which provides two global tournaments and two duels with Australia in every four-year cycle. Cricket has to work hard to penetrate the public's consciousness on either side of these events. Test cricket's ongoing 15-year absence from free-to-air television - Broad has never bowled a delivery for England on FTA - doesn't help.

Cricket and Spoty

1956 Jim Laker* 

1975 David Steele* 

1978 Ian Botham

1979 Ian Botham

1981 Ian Botham*

1985 Ian Botham

1990 Graham Gooch

2004 Andrew Flintoff

2005 Andrew Flintoff*, Michael Vaughan

2006 Monty Panesar

2009 Andrew Strauss

2010 Greame Swann

2011 Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook

2013 Ian Bell

2017 Anya Shrubsole

2018 James Anderson

2019 Ben Stokes*

2020 Stuart Broad

^{* Winner}

Fittingly, this is the 20th time a cricketer has been nominated (11 have finished in the top three) for the main award, but only six have been acknowledged in a year without those two major events. Ian Botham, due to his heroics against Pakistan (108 and 8-34), was the first to break throughout without requiring an inspired display against the old enemy.

Graham Gooch's 333 against India at Lord's saw him celebrated in 1990 and it took another 14 years for cricket to figure significantly at the ceremony, in the form of Andrew Flintoff in 2004. To finish third in an Olympic year is a testament to how Freddie captured the imagination of the public as he helped guide England to the Champions Trophy final.

Monty Panesar's maiden year in Test cricket when he knocked over India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia got him a nomination in 2006 but seven of the next eight names got in based on Ashes and World Cup wins. Anya Shrubsole is the only women to be shortlisted in 2017, despite a double World Cup win in 2009.

^{Jim Laker won in the award's third year in 1956}

It was James Anderson's turn in 2018 after he became Test cricket's most prolific fast bowler but Stokes' awesome performance across last summer was a reminder, aside from record-breaking performances, of the importance of both events. Such dominance of the British sporting year is normally reserved for Andy Murray.

So when we raise a glass to the 2020 sporting year, cricket will once again be part of the conversation. It might not always be like this, but we can still consider a job well done.

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