This week there are so many possible winners of the award, but no real stand-out performers. In Tests, there was Rahul Dravid, still churning out match-winning centuries. In the County Championship there were big hundreds for Worcestershire's Vikram Solanki and young Essex batsman Adam Wheater. Then in Twenty20 cricket, Gloucestershire openers Hamish Marshall and Kevin O'Brien blasted their way into the record books as the first pair to reach three figures in the same T20 innings. With the ball, Shahid Afridi, Shakib al-Hasan and Liam Plunkett took some cheap wickets, too.
In the Championship, three unsung thirty-something county stalwarts, Nottinghamshire's Paul Franks, Essex's David Masters and David Lucas of Northants all produced devastating spells with the ball while contributing with bat, too. Of course, Marcus Trescothick continued his great form, making 50s in every innings he played, in all formats. However, in a very difficult decision, I have made my Player of the Week Azhar Mahmood.
On a Lord's wicket that gave up 23 wickets on the first day, it was clearly not a dream batting track! Tim Murtagh took 5-27 as Kent were skittled in the morning, although Azhar Mahmood, batting at seven, top scored with 32. The same man removed his pads and proceeded to claimd 6-36 to keep his side in the match. Kent were then left struggling at 140-9 when Mahmood and partner Simon Cook put on 92, the former eventually marooned on 50. He bowled eight tidy overs later that day but it was all in vain as Middlesex remembered how to bat and won by nine wickets.
The Pakistani all-rounder is 36 now, and played the last of his 21 Tests ten years ago, at Old Trafford. He scored three hundreds but averaged only 30. His 39 wickets came at around 35 apiece. His ODI career was considerably longer but in 143 games he never scored more than 67 and a 6-18 was by far his best return with the ball. Both in Pakistan and in the English game, he has been very consistent, especially as an old-fashioned medium-fast seamer. He has scored more than 7000 runs and taken 600 wickets in first-class cricket but his value as an all-rounder in Twenty20 is also well proven. He amassed 106 not out the other week for Kent against Gloucestershire, and boasts a career strike rate of 147 and bowling economy rate of 7.24, both pretty good going. Married to a British wife, he is now firmly rooted in England and, judging by recent performances, has plenty more to parade for audiences here.
