County champions Essex grabbed a double at the 2017 Cricket Writers’ Club awards today with batsman Dan Lawrence named the Young Cricketer of the Year and pace bowler taking Jamie Porter taking the County Championship Player of the Year trophy, writes Simon Walter.
The 20-year-old Lawrence topped a ballot of the CWC’s more than 300 members after scoring 761 runs at an average of nearly 45, including three hundreds and three fifties – a major contribution to Essex’s First Division triumph.
Lawrence was the first Essex player to win the award since team-mate Ravi Bopara in 2008 and the sixth in all after the late Brian Taylor (1956), Neil Foster (1983), Nasser Hussain (1989) and Alastair Cook (2005).
Essex coach Chris Silverwood was the 1996 winner when playing for Yorkshire.
First presented in 1950, and one of the oldest such honours in cricket, the award, which by tradition is won just once in a career, is restricted to England-qualified players under the age of 23 on April 1. Previous winners of the Cricket Writers’ Club Young Cricketer of the Year award have amassed more than 2,500 Test caps between them.
Lawrence said: “What a season is has been. I am pleased to have played my part in this wonderful triumph.
“As a young player it is great to learn from the likes of Alastair Cook and to have him in our side during the season has been a huge boost.
“There is no reason why we cannot progress from here and be a force again in future years.”
Meanwhile, Porter, a lively pace bowler, took an impressive 75 wickets at a miserly average of under 17 apiece as Essex went unbeaten. He succeeds Keaton Jennings, the England batsman, as the latest winner of this award.
“I am really pleased to have been chosen for the award by the cricket writers after a remarkable season,” he said.
“It may shock some people but at the start of the campaign a number of lads in the dressing room said we can win this and to our credit we have played some great cricket.
“I am obviously pleased with my season and the wickets I have taken. We now have a fine crop of young players and the future is bright.”
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