Craig Shortlisted for PCA Player of the Month
PCA Player of the Month is back for the new domestic season with eight top performing players for you to vote for in April’s awards.
The top four men’s and women’s domestic players have been announced using the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by OFX, with two prizes to be decided through your votes and the MVP.
The beginning of the season in the men’s and women’s game has seen some fantastic individual performances, resulting in some high MVP points scoring.
Somerset’s Craig Overton has shown his all-round capabilities with 91.94 points whilst Nottinghamshire’s Joe Clarke has started the season in excellent form securing 98.51 MVP points in April. Surrey’s Jamie Smith is only 0.3 of a point behind Overton with the top four being completed by last year’s PCA Men’s Domestic Overall MVP winner and Warwickshire captain, Ed Barnard.
Men’s Player of the Month
April saw the Rothesay County Championship get underway with Warwickshire and Somerset making promising starts in Division One and Lancashire and Durham impressing in Division Two.
Craig Overton (Somerset)
Somerset stand-in captain Overton scored 253 runs at an average of 84.33, alongside taking eight wickets with an economy rate of 2.77.
The 32-year-old all-rounder was the Match MVP against Essex for an outstanding performance including an innings of 141 off 180 balls with 19 fours and three sixes and match figures of 4-81, adding 55.61 MVP points to his total in a 10-wicket victory.
Joe Clarke (Nottinghamshire)
A brilliant start to 2026 saw Clarke amass 449 runs in April at an average of 74.83. The Nottinghamshire batter secured 96.51 MVP batting points and is the leading run-scorer in the Rothesay County Championship.
The 29-year-old won a Match MVP against Glamorgan earning 41.98 points thanks to his second innings knock of 136 off 195 balls as his side won by 192 runs.
Jamie Smith (Surrey)
Batting at number three for Surrey, Smith has swiftly gone about scoring 401 runs with an average of 80.20 and securing the second most batting MVP points of 88.64 in April.
The 25-year-old won the Match MVP against Leicestershire by scoring 166 in the first innings and 89 off 109 balls in the second to earn a massive 62.15 MVP points – the most of any Match MVP so far this season.
Ed Barnard (Warwickshire)
The new Warwickshire skipper has scored 275 runs at an average of 45.83 and taken five wickets with an impressive economy rate of 2.57.
The 30-year-old won a Match MVP against Nottinghamshire for his fantastic knock of 165 off 217 balls with 21 fours and two sixes, giving the all-rounder 45.29 MVP points to add to his total for April.
The PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings, powered by OFX, picks out the game’s top performers across every single fixture. This then forms the rankings for each competition, as well as an overall table which is how the top four are selected. The MVP takes into account batting, bowling and fielding contributions and match defining achievements using a unique live algorithm developed by CricViz.
The PCA Player of the Month will be decided by a 50:50 split between the PCA MVP Rankings and the public vote.
The poll will close on Friday 1 May at 10pm.
