ESPNcricinfo wins county coverage award

ESPNcricinfo's expanded coverage of English county cricket has been recognised by the ECB after it was named online publication of the year in the governing body's 2012 County Journalism Awards.

Our expert team, led by senior correspondent George Dobell, has consistently led the way in providing the brightest and most significant county cricket coverage around. No other website offers the same quality of reporting, whether in the latest news stories, our extensive match reports or the rolling coverage provided daily in our insightful and irreverent county blog.

Throughout the 2012 season, county cricket lovers increasingly chose ESPNcricinfo as their preferred choice for news of the domestic game - and our extensive coverage will continue in 2013.

"The ECB is keen to promote the coverage of county cricket and we were delighted with both the quantity and quality of entries for this year's competition," ECB chief executive, David Collier, said. "Congratulations go to all our winners and our thanks to the Cricket Writers' Club and the judging panel for supporting this initiative once again."

Other winners included the Daily Telegraph, named national newspaper of the year, the Yorkshire Post, which took the regional award, and special acknowledgement of the recently founded Cricket Paper for "outstanding innovation and support of county cricket". David Jordan, who writes for the Sportsbeat press agency, was named young journalist of the year.

The awards were presented by Collier as part of an official reception hosted by the Lord's Taverners for this year's County Championship winners, Warwickshire. Women's County Champions, Kent, were also present at Buckingham Palace for the annual presentation of the trophies by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who is Patron and "Twelfth Man" of recreational cricket's official charity.

Pat Gibson, the chairman of the Cricket Writers' Club, added: "The winners in the national newspaper and online categories were rewarded for significantly improving their coverage and while the Yorkshire Post continues to set the standard among the regionals they were challenged hard by other newspapers from around the country."