Champagne Moment For Dominic Cork (16 Apr 1996)

Champagne moment for Cork

16 April 1996

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

IT IS the season for retrospective awards. Yesterday in London, Cornhill Insurance named Dominic Cork as their England Player of the Year, for which he received a cheque for 7,500. It is a handsome bonus for his 45 wickets in his first 10 Tests.

Only Mike Atherton, back with the new England coach David Lloyd from Lancashire`s tour of Jamaica, and Jack Russell, who had a memorable 1995, pushed Cork close. Graeme Hick might have done with a little more consistency, but he has the consolation of being honoured tonight as the most improved player in the Coopers and Lybrand ratings.

It is symptomatic of current problems that two other awards have gone to players from overseas. At Lord`s this evening, Chris Cairns, currently serving New Zealand in the West Indies, will receive in absentia 1,000 and the Team Century Trophy for scoring the fastest first-class century last season, in 65 balls.

Anil Kumble, also on duty for his country, wins the Ridley Trophy, a silver stump, plus a cheque for 1,000, as the first (indeed the only) bowler to take 100 wickets last summer.

The Ridley began life as the Swanton Trophy in 1982 under Daily Telegraph sponsorship, and EWS will be in the Long Room this evening as he was last week at the 50th anniversary of the Cricket Writers` Club. He and his fellow speaker, Sir Colin Cowdrey, were in sparkling form and agreed on the principle of encouraging the basic skills of batting and bowling.

Those skills will have their reward again this season when Whyte & Mackay increase their valuable prize fund for the top 20 England-qualified batsmen and bowlers to 130,000.

No doubt their statistics will be studied carefully by whichever two selectors emerge from the eight candidates on whom the 20 members of the TCCB must vote by tomorrow night.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)