GSCA honours top players

The Great Southern Cricket Association wrapped up its 2019-20 season with the announcement of its award winners last Thursday after it had to cancel its presentation night scheduled for last Friday night due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was cancelled after recommendations from the WACA and Cricket Australia and GSCA discussed the idea of postponing the event but with uncertainty concerning the next couple of months a decision to name the winners was made. Individual award winners were announced while Tambellup and Broomehill dominated the GSCA Team of the Year that was also named. Broomehill star Steve Irvine was recognised for his outstanding season, named Cricketer of the Year. He won the top honour after polling 14 votes to edge out joint runners-up Jack Taylor and Muhammad Salman who both finished with 12 votes. Irvine made 497 runs at an average of 82.83 to also win the batting aggregate and average. Premiers Tambellup and Broomehill both had four players each in the final 12 while Kendenup had two and Broomehill and Wanderers each had one player selected. Tambellup’s Jack Taylor and Jedd Herbert are the two openers in the team of the year while Nathan and Daniel Willmott lead the bowling attack after taking 36 wickets between them for the premiers. Leading run-scorer Irvine, along with all-rounders Jack Batchelor, Sam Richardson and Ethan Caldwell make up Broomehill’s quartet. Clinton Gilbert and Darcy Burcham represent Kendenup while Salman (Frankland River) and Kyle Sinclair (Wanderers) were also named in the team. Nathan Willmott dominated the bowling awards topping the bowling aggregate and average after taking 23 wickets at an average of 8.13 in a premiership winning season for Tambellup. Ethan Caldwell was named Fielder of the Year with 13 votes. The GSCA executive committee thanked everyone for a great season. “We would like to take this chance to thank all clubs for a successful 2019/2020 cricket season,” the statement read. “We look forward to seeing the competition grow in the 2020/21 season.”