Yorkshire win 2007 MCC Spirit of Cricket Award

Yorkshire have won the 2007 MCC Spirit of Cricket County Team Award for the first time since the awards were introduced.

Led by the charismatic Darren Gough, in his first season back at Headingley Carnegie since 2004, Yorkshire narrowly won the contest from Durham, their fellow LV County Championship Division One title-contenders.

The winning Yorkshire team were presented with its trophy at the Professional Cricketers Awards Dinner in the Royal Albert Hall on Monday. Previous winners of the award have been Glamorgan, Somerset and Middlesex.

The MCC Spirit of Cricket County Award is presented to the team which has the highest average score - marked by the first-class umpires - from all county matches (first-class or limited over) in the relevant season.

MCC’s Head of Cricket, John Stephenson, said: "It has been a memorable – if difficult - year for county cricket.

"In a rain-affected season, it is encouraging to note how close all the county competitions were, with promotion, relegation and title-winning games going down to the wire.

"Equally as pleasing, the cricket has been played in the right spirit – hard but fair.

"Our congratulations go to Yorkshire who, under Darren Gough, let their cricket do the talking and were in the title-mix right up to the end of the season."

Alan Fordham, ECB’s First Class Cricket Operations Manager, said: "It is encouraging to see Yorkshire pick up this award for the first time, with Durham hard on their heels.

"Both teams have had very good seasons, either winning trophies or being in strong contention for some silverware, and it’s a very good example to cricketers at all levels of the game that you can play winning cricket in the right spirit."

Aside from the first-class County Team Award, the Club runs a grassroots initiative – the MCC Spirit of Cricket Challenge – in twelve areas of England and Wales, designed to introduce the game to primary school children.

In addition, MCC Spirit of Cricket sponsors the ECB National Under 13 Club Championship, a tournament contested by over 1,700 clubs across the UK.

Underpinning the campaign, MCC Spirit of Cricket postcards and posters are distributed around the world to spread the ‘play hard, play fair’ message – with the world’s best cricketers fronting the campaign, from Adam Gilchrist and Sachin Tendulkar to Andrew Flintoff and Brian Lara.

The annual MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture – this year delivered by Christopher Martin-Jenkins – is also an increasingly important event in the cricketing calendar.