Youngsters look to conquer MVP Rankings

The quest for the 2025 Men's Domestic Overall MVP commences with the new domestic season beginning on Friday. This year, the prestigious accolade is powered by OFX, the PCA's Official FX Partner.

Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson will be aiming to make it a hat-trick of Overall MVP honours, after dominating last year with 635.22 MVP points and finishing more than 140 ahead of second-placed James Vince.

The 2024 PCA Men's Player of the Year, however, will be facing staunch competition from a plethora of experienced players as well as a group of hungry youngsters with a £10,000 prize on offer along with a bespoke gold trophy.

All-rounders including Warwickshire's Ed Barnard, Somerset's Lewis Gregory and Middlesex's Ryan Higgins are expected to have standout seasons as serial MVP points scorers over the last few years while three-time Overall winner Simon Harmer could challenge again.

Barnard and Gregory finished third and fourth in the Overall standings last year respectively while Higgins finished runner-up in 2023 and came within only 34 points of toppling the Hampshire star.

This year, however, many young players will enter the 2025 domestic season on a high and will be looking to stake their claim on the honours. We have selected eight players who had outstanding campaigns in 2024 and will be looking to push for further success this summer.

Lancashire all-rounder George Balderson picked up 36 wickets in the County Championship last season at an average of 30. Out of his 302.92 MVP points, 170.25 came from his exploits with the ball. He is also a handy batter in the lower middle-order, scoring two half-centuries in back-to-back Metro Bank One Day Cup games.

Ethan Brookes, meanwhile, had a breakthrough season with Worcestershire, establishing his place in the team's middle-order. He recorded 322.07 MVP points, including 128.73 points in the Vitality Blast where he contributed 315 runs and 11 wickets, ending as the Pears' third-highest wicket-taker in the competition and scoring at a healthy strike-rate of 145.83.

James Coles scored more than 700 runs in the County Championship last season whilst having an outstanding Vitality Blast where he scored a further 354 runs and picked up 20 wickets with his spin. The Sussex all-rounder ended with an MVP points tally of 353.5 with his batting efforts yielding 172.81 points.

Jordan Cox finished 17th in the Men's Overall standings last season, accumulating 387.66 points. The Essex batter scored 918 runs in the County Championship at an average of 65.57. He registered four centuries in the competition, including a double century against Kent at Canterbury. The 24-year-old also played five times for England last year.

George Hill's excellent end to 2024 saw his side secure promotion to Division One. The right-hander scored 134.80 MVP points in August and September where he starred with bat and ball. Just turned 24, he scored an unbeaten 169 against Middlesex towards the end of August and then excelled with his seam bowling – taking 6-59 against Leicestershire a few days later.

Another candidate with big ambitions to topple the established challengers this season is Warwickshire's Dan Mousley. The spin-bowling all-rounder's breakout season at Edgbaston saw him represent England in white-ball cricket in 2024. He earned 377.44 MVP points last season to finish ahead of teammates Jacob Bethell, Sam Hain and Danny Briggs in the Men's Overall MVP standings.

Ollie Price, 23, was shortlisted for the PCA Men's Young Player of the Year in 2023. The right-hander is now an established member of the Gloucestershire squad which lifted the Vitality Blast, scoring the winning runs in the final. He was Gloucestershire's fifth-highest points scorer in the Men's Overall MVP Rankings last year with 320.45 points.

Since the completion of last season, Somerset's Archie Vaughan has captain the England U19 squad. The all-rounder had a breakout season last year which saw him win the PCA Men's Player of the Month in September, scoring 222 runs and taking 13 wickets, including a 10-wicket haul against champions Surrey.

Every domestic competition taking place in the country has a Player of the Year award associated, with the winner receiving £2,500 per competition plus a personalised trophy from Mappin & Webb.

The PCA's Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by OFX, picks out the game's top performers across every single fixture. The MVP takes into account batting, bowling, and fielding contributions as well as match defining contributions using a unique algorithm developed with CricViz.

View the 2024 Men's Domestic Overall MVP standings here. (Will add a link to the web story after the start of the season)

Save time and money with OFX, the PCA's Official FX partner, offering members bank-beating rates and an easier way to send money home.