Gloucestershire's Tom Smith wins top PCA Futures Award
15 December 2022
Gloucestershire spinner Tom Smith has won the top accolade at the PCA's annual Futures Awards in recognition of his personal development and recent off-field accomplishments.
The 35-year-old was this morning, Thursday 15 December, announced as the award winner in the CSR and Community category alongside being named the outstanding candidate of the entire process, made up of 23 applicants from across the County circuit.
Tom impressed a panel of judges having played a vital role in advocating for funding to support players with critical illness cover, a personal campaign that has led to all current male and females cricketers now benefiting from his work. He wanted to make his fellow professionals aware of the benefits of appropriate life cover following the death of his wife in 2018.
In recent years Tom has developed his role into player-coach at Gloucestershire and is looking to spend the £3,000 prize money on spin tracking technology to aid his coaching ambitions. He also hopes to further develop his leadership qualities by signing up to an emotional intelligence course.
PCA Futures Awards overall winner for 2022, Tom Smith, said: “It’s not all about the accolade but it does mean a huge amount. With the critical health cover, the fact that over 500 playing members can benefit from that gives me a huge amount of pride.
“The PCA and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust have been great to me. Martin Cropper, my Personal Development Manager, encouraged me to apply and I’m so glad that I did, he’s been fantastic in helping my development.
“I’m proud that I can sit here and tell my story and the Trust has been a family to me, supporting me since before Laura died. Without that support I probably would have retired four years ago. The PCA and the Trust have given me such a rich life when there was just darkness and uncertainty.”
The PCA Futures Awards, which are part of the PCA’s Personal Development and Welfare Programme (PDWP), encourages candidates to apply with detailed information of what they have been doing away from the game. A list of finalists are then invited to deliver a presentation followed by a question and answer session based on their personal development.
The event aims to highlight the very best examples of personal development amongst the PCA membership and help those winners towards their future ambitions.
For the second year in succession, the PCA Futures Awards were held in association with Lodders Solicitors, at the law firm’s Cheltenham office.
