Eyebrows were raised when Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen won the Cricket Writers' Award last week. True, he was one of the highest scorers in the County Championship but he's not really a great exponent of the one-day format, unlike the more versatile winner of the PCA Player of the Year accolade, Moeen Ali.
The Worcestershire strokeplayer has the added bonus of being a tidy spin bowler and his 2013 season brought him more than 2000 runs nd 40 wickets in all cricket. Not many men achieve that these days. Perhaps the fact that he plays for a Division Two county counted against him with the writers, but the cricketers recognise class when they see it. Still only 26 he has more than 10,000 runs to his name although in the first-class stuff, his average remains below 40. If he has a weakness it's his inability to convert 50s into hundreds but maybe that will come with more experience. His List A average of 30 is nothing special but his scoring rate of more than 100 most definitely is. With the ball, his wickets have been expensive but he did sign off the Championship campaign with 3-30 and 6-77 against promoted Northants. He has more of an all-rounder status in T20 but for me he looks more comfortable wearing whites rather than one-day pyjamas. A thoroughly deserving winner of the PCA Award.
That's not to say that Madsen didn't have a great season. He did. A shame that his county failed to consolidate their position in the top flight. The 29 year-old from Durban has been noticed by me before in the newspaper scoreboards, mostly by grinding out slow centuries as counterpoint to faster efforts by the likes of Chesney Hughes or Wes Durston. However, he looked more of a complete package this summer, despite a mediocre September. His first-class career launched with KwaZulu-Natal in 2004, alongside Dale Benkenstein and a young Hashim Amla. I can't see him breaking into the South African international squad just yet but if he continues to improve in England and maybe also back home, he may just fill a void which may appear shortly when Kallis retires and if Graeme Smith's fitness fails him.
I can't let the occasion pass without again paying tribute to Ben Stokes. I'm not a fan of drunken yobs but if he can channel his feistiness into his strokeplay, fast bowling and excellent fielding, then he has a very promising future with Durham and England. With Jonny Bairstow, the future's bright, the future's orange. Come on, you gingers!!
