Stevens and Billings nominated for PCA Awards 2014

Kent’s Darren Stevens and Sam Billings have been nominated for prizes at the 2014 Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) Awards.

Several players from the Kent squad will be present as the winners are announced on Wednesday 1 October, at Old Billingsgate in London.

All-rounder Stevens committed his future to Kent this month and is up against Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel, Adam Lyth and Jack Brooks of LV= County champions Yorkshire.

The evergreen cricketer led the way for Kent with 56 wickets in the LV= County Championship, taking six five-wicket hauls, as well as scoring over 800 runs.

In the NatWest T20 Blast, he hit 351 runs at a strike-rate of almost 160, including three fifties, and took 18 wickets. He ended the campaign with over 1,300 runs and 81 wickets across all formats, once again showing his pedigree in county cricket.

Stevens led the overall FTI MVP rankings for a large part of the summer but was edged out by winner Jeetan Patel in the last match of the season which means he’s finished in the top three for two consecutive years.

Kent's Sam Billings, who will take part in the England Performance Programme this winter, is in contention for Young Player of the Year alongside Lewis Gregory (Somerset), Alex Lees (Yorkshire) and 2013 winner Ben Stokes (Durham).

The 23-year-old wicketkeeper averaged over 100 in the Royal London One-Day Cup after hitting three half-centuries and a remarkable 135 off just 58 balls as Kent beat Somerset.

He featured in all 16 LV= County Championship matches this summer, scoring 755 runs in the process. Throw in 210 runs in the NatWest T20 Blast, the keeper ended the year with 1,496 runs with 74 dismissals included nine stumpings with the gloves.

Recent winners of the Reg Hayter Cup for the PCA Player of the Year include Moeen Ali, Nick Compton and Marcus Trescothick.

The last three winners of the John Arlott Cup for the PCA Young Player of the Year – Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Alex Hales – have all gone on to represent England.

The not-for-profit event, run by the PCA in association with the England and Wales Cricket Board, sees English cricketers – both past and present – raise proceeds for to the PCA Benevolent Fund.

The full list of awards for 2014 are:

ECB Special Award

PCA Special Merit Award, sponsored by Lycamobile

NatWest T20 Blast Player of the Year Award

Royal London One-Day Cup Player of the Year Award

Sky Sports Sixes Award

England FTI MVP of the Summer

FTI Team of the Year

Waitrose Women's Player of the Summer

Investec Test Player of the Summer

John Arlott Cup for the PCA Young Player of the Year

Reg Hayter Cup for the PCA Player of the Year