Grassroots Cricket Awards celebrate volunteers across Yorkshire

The inaugural Grassroots Cricket Awards for Yorkshire took place at Headingley on 23 March to recognise all of those volunteers who contribute to recreational cricket in Yorkshire.

This delayed and rebooted version of what used to be the ‘OSCAs’ is organised by the Yorkshire Cricket Board and there are new categories, with nine recipients chosen for national recognition by the ECB from county winners.

Speaking of which, I have interviewed two of Yorkshire’s award winners here on the website to understand more about their involvement and the impact they have had.

Luke Brooksby won Cricket Innovator Award for his efforts with FrogBox live streaming, heritage caps and an incredible effort in digitising scorecards. I interviewed Luke about his approach at Illingworth St Mary’s and the impact of technology.

It was also a pleasure to hear from Ji Mukerjee about how disability cricket has taken off at Skipton Cricket Club.

Ji explained the partnership with Brooklands Special Needs School, his approach to coaching and how disability cricket has grown in the area.

Here is the full list of winners below with the double asterisk indicating national / ECB award winners too. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated.

As I know with the Cricket Yorkshire 50, you can’t recognise the efforts of everyone but it’s a chance to show how people of all ages across Yorkshire are making a difference each year.

Award Winners

Connecting Communities (Brian and Shirley Hobson Award) – Jacob Kalapurakal

Inspired to Play (Brian Stone Award) – David Willey

Rising Star Award (Francesca Anoble Memorial) – Mollie Ovenden

Game Changer Award – Ifthikash Arun

Unsung Hero (George Reah Award) – Don Winspear **

Growing the game (Lawrence Walker Award) – Adrianna Darlow

Lifetime Achiever – Keith Blagg

Cricket Innovator Award – Luke Brooksby **

Young Coach of the Year – Nathan Law

Coach of the Year (Maurice Young Award) – Ghulam Rafique

Coach of the Year (Maurice Young Award) – Tom Shaw

Outstanding Contribution/Services to Coaching – Adam Hutchinson

Outstanding Contribution/Services to Coach Development – John Lazenby

Women’s Cricket Development (Barbara Hare Award) – Tayaba Parveen

Disability Cricket Award – Ji Mukherjee

Umpiring (Derek Shuttleworth Award) – Lee Peters

Scoring (Ralph Pritchard Award) – Kevan Goldsby-West

Groundsmanship Award – Andy Fortis

Services to Diverse Communities Cricket Award (Numan Shabbir Syed Award) – Rehan Mir

YCB Special Award – David House

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