September 25 Wednesday 2002
Vaughan named player of the year in England

LONDON: England opener Michael Vaughan has been voted player of the year by the Professional Cricketers' Association.

The Yorkshire batsman emerged as England's outstanding batsman during the summer when he plundered four Test centuries against Sri Lanka and India. Vaughan had a phenomenal season with the bat. In all first-class cricket he made 976 runs from just 15 innings at an average of 75.07.

His highest score of the season was 197, made in a Test match at Trent Bridge against India. In the first Test series of the summer against Sri Lanka, which England won 2-0, Vaughan starred by making 285 runs at an average of 71.25.

Vaughan had an even better series against India averaging 102.50 runs. He made an aggregate of 615 runs and picked up the England 'Player Of The Series Award' in the process.

Vaughan also managed to record figures of 4 for 22 during the one-day series with his off-spin in a match with the Sri Lankans at Old Trafford.

Vaughan was one of five nominations for the award, the others being fellow England players Nick Knight, Ronnie Irani and Matthew Hoggard and Northamptonshire's Australian batsman Michael Hussey.

Worcestershire's Kabir Ali won the PCA Young Player of the Year award. The other nominations were Jim Troughton (Warwickshire), Rikki Clarke (Surrey), James Anderson (Lancashire) and Gordon Muchall (Durham).