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David Payne wins Vitality Blast Player of the Year

15 September 2024

David Payne has won the 2024 Vitality Blast Player of the Year after finishing top of the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings.

The Gloucestershire all-rounder took a phenomenal 33 wickets, finishing the tournament as the leading wicket-taker and equally the record for the most amount of wickets in an English domestic T20 season, as his side lifted the trophy on Finals Day at Edgbaston.

A relatively low-scoring day didn’t stop the drama with Gloucestershire chasing down 125 just two wickets down to win their first ever T20 trophy, as Payne took fantastic figures of 3-27 helping to dismiss Somerset for 124.

The Vitality Blast Player of the Year award is decided by the PCA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Rankings with the unique formula taking into account expected performance on every ball according to CricViz’s extensive database. The algorithm also considers the historic performances of the venue each fixture is being played at, therefore giving a more accurate reflection of the top performers in the game than traditional batting and bowling averages do.

With a plethora of standout performances throughout the Vitality Blast, Payne won the Vitality Blast Player of the Year by securing 279 MVP points.

The 33-year-old took 33 wickets at an average of 12.8 with an impressive economy rate of 6.29.

Payne won an incredible five Match MVP awards in the competition. The first coming against Essex where he earnt 38 MVP points for fantastic figures of 4-24, which included a maiden, in a five-wicket win for Gloucestershire.

The left-armer picked up further Match MVPs against Hampshire and Sussex, before taking 4-25 against Kent, adding another 31 points to his MVP total.

In the Vitality Blast quarter-final against Birmingham Bears, the left-arm pace bowler won a further Match MVP and secured 23 points for a brilliant bowling display of 4-23, which not for the first time in the competition included a maiden over, as Gloucestershire progressed to Finals Day with a 14-run victory.

Payne received his Vitality Blast Player of the Year trophy during the post-match presentation and said: “This won’t sink in for a while, I’m feeling a lot of emotion and a huge amount of pride for this group right now.

“I’ve never felt better with my bowling, I moved to a white-ball contract to look after my body and I think it was the best decision I’ve ever made. The reason you stay at a club like Gloucestershire is for days like this because it means so much more.”

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