Notts Outlaws pair Harry Gurney and Michael Lumb are pushing for inclusion for places in the North team for next year’s innovative three-match series against the South in the United Arab Emirates.
The top four England-qualified players from each region in this season’s Royal London One Day Cup Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings, plus the leading spinner, will be selected to play in the North v South matches, with the remaining players chosen by the England selectors who will be thinking about the strategic needs of the England team in the build-up to the next World Cup.
Left arm seamer Gurney is currently the joint highest-ranked England-qualified player in the Royal London One Day Cup on 108 points, level with Northamptonshire’s former Nottinghamshire slow left-armer Graeme White. They are seven points adrift of leader Colin Ingram, Glamorgan’s South African all-rounder, who is ineligible for the North v South series.
Nottinghamshire opening batsman Lumb, who like Gurney has already played international cricket for England, is ninth in the PCA MVP Rankings table on 84 points having begun the competition in spectacular fashion with successive centuries against Northamptonshire and Warwickshire last month.
Lumb’s opening partner Riki Wessels, who recently gained British citizenship, is just two places behind him in the PCA MVP with 81 points with all-rounder Steven Mullaney also pushing for inclusion in the North team.
Mullaney is 15th in the PCA MVP Rankings for the 50 overs competition with 74 points while Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel is sixth in this season’s overall PCA MVP accross all formats on 310 points.
The PCA MVP was introduced in 2007 and is designed by the players to find the cricketers who really win matches by combining all aspects of a player’s performance to give a ranking in relation to his peers.
The revised MVP formula gives full credit to those players whose performances improve their team’s chances of winning. Points are accrued for all runs scored and wickets taken; these are then adjusted within the context of the match to take into account strike rates and economy rates.
Runs gain more points if they are scored quickly or in low-scoring contests. Top order wickets taken at the start of the innings are judged more valuable than those that fall later, and bowlers who bowl their overs cheaply (in the context of the match) are given due reward for doing so.
The weightings in the revised formula have been scaled so as to provide continuity with previous seasons, ensuring that the value of an MVP point this year is equivalent to those allocated under previous formulae.