Somerset all-rounder Lewis Gregory has been included on the shortlist for the 2014 LV= County Championship Breakthrough Player award.
Voting is now open online on the LV= website and Somerset fans can support Lewis by casting their vote for him to win the award.
Visit http://www.lv.com/about-us/sponsorship/lv-cc/breakthrough-player to cast your vote by 11.59pm on Friday 12 September. You’ll also go into the draw to win a cricket bat signed by the England Investec Ashes Test team.
The player with the highest number of votes will receive the LV= County Championship Breakthrough Player Award trophy, and LV= will donate £1,000 to a grassroots cricket initiative of their choice.
Lewis joins four other emerging players who have been recognised for their performances in the championship.
The award, now in its third year, was established by championship sponsor LV= to celebrate the next generation of young cricketers.
Sadly, Somerset’s Craig Overton, who was included along with Lewis on the original longlist for this year’s award, has not made the final five.
However, it’s a huge honour for Somerset to have had two players on this prestigious list and recognition of the talented players coming through our youth system.
Lewis, who was voted the InCider player of the month for April and is in the running to win the award again for July, has had a superb season, despite missing several weeks with a hamstring injury picked up during a televised T20 game.
He has so far taken 37 wickets in just seven matches at an average of 24.14, three times recording his best bowling figures in a match, culminating in 11-122 to lead Somerset to victory away to Northamptonshire last month. Lewis has also made a more than useful 214 runs at an average of 30.57, with a best score of 69 against an international class Yorkshire bowling attack in the opening match of the season.
The full shortlist announced by LV= is: Zafar Ansari (Surrey), Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Alex Lees (Yorkshire), Adam Riley (Kent) and Jason Roy (Surrey).
The shortlist was selected by a panel of five judges including former England captain Mike Gatting and ECB performance director David Parsons PCA Chairman and Glamorgan captain Mark Wallace was also on the panel deciding the shortlist.
We say: Lewis can be very proud to be recognised in this way. It is a mark of the breakthrough he has made this year. We’d like to congratulate him on this honour and we’re sure all Somerset fans will get behind him in the public vote. Don’t forget to visit the LV= website and cast your vote today!
Commiserations to Craig for not making the final shortlist, but it was a mark of his progress this year that he too made the original longlist and has now been called up to represent England Lions in the tri-series with New Zealand A and Sri Lanka A.