The ECB today announced that James Anderson and Charlotte Edwards have been respectively named as the England Men’s and Women’s Cricketer of the Year for 2011-12.
They are joined by two other award winners; the England Development Programme Cricketer of the Year, Daniel Bell-Drummond, and this year’s England Disability Cricketer of the Year, Callum Rigby.
All four received their awards at a special dinner held in the Long Room at Lord’s this evening which was hosted by ECB and Brit Insurance, the sponsor of all England cricket teams.
England fast bowler James Anderson says the team are not wanting to rest on their laurels after becoming the number one Test team in the world and want to be known as the best England team ever.
I was asked if Graeme Swann and me have signed a deal whereby he calls me the best seamer in the world and I have to call him the best spinner.
But I found out yesterday it is not just England players who think Swann is the best of his type on the planet. We were coming off the outfield in Colombo when Suraj Randiv, the Sri Lankan offie, asked him: ‘How do you spin the ball so much? I’d love to be able to spin it as much as you.’
England captain Andrew Strauss received support from Jimmy Anderson, who described calls for the skipper’s head as ‘ridiculous’.
‘I utterly reject the notion that if we lose in Colombo he should go as captain,’ he said. ‘He’s the ideal man for the job. He’s having a bad trot with the bat, but that happens. Even the greats go through it.
James Anderson and his Test teammates are ready to make what previous generations of England tourists would have considered the ultimate sacrifice in their attempt to retain the world No 1 spot in sweltering Sri Lanka – a fortnight on the wagon.
A hard two-month trip to the desert ends this week and England have learned plenty of lessons from Pakistan… but we also have many reasons to be confident about the future.
Of course it would be a huge blow if we lost this Test and suffered a series whitewash.
It never entered our heads that we would find ourselves in this position at the start of the series and I still can’t really believe we are 2-0 down and in such a tight spot in this final Test.
People might imagine there would be a huge panic in the dressing room when a batting collapse is happening, with players running around like headless chickens throwing kit on left, right and centre and struggling to get out to the middle in time.
We didn’t just let ourselves down in the First Test but we let our management and supporters down, and we are acutely aware that our performance was nowhere near good enough.
Life as a professional sportsman is all about winning, so to lose in that manner, hurts a great deal.
It has not taken long to slip back into touring after a break that reminded us all what normal family life is actually like.
We have a fantastic team spirit in this England squad and are as close as most family units, but I challenge anyone to spend months in the same hotels as the likes of Graeme Swann and not get at least a little irritated!
We’ve got straight back into that family mentality after just a few days back on tour.
