First XI bowler Naz Asif is Mill Hill Village Cricket Club’s most valuable player for 2023 after taking 19 wickets at an average of 14.21.

The medium-paced right-armer caused persistent problems for batsmen this season with his challenging wicket-to-wicket deliveries despite a campaign that saw the 1st XI relegated from Division 4B of the Saracens Herts Cricket League.

Asif sent down 64.4 overs including nine maidens in 13 league appearances this season, taking his 19 wickets for 270 runs at an economy rate of 4.18 and strike rate of 20.42. His best performance was 5-22 on July 8 in a 46-run home defeat against Harpenden CC 3rd XI. He took 21.11 percent of his side's wickets in the season, according to Play-Cricket.

Asif also scored 202 runs in 12 league innings, often opening the batting. His top score was 58 against Broxbourne CC 2nd XI in a 24-run win on September 2.

Asif topped Play-Cricket's end-of-season Mill Hill Village leaderboard with 47 points, ahead of 2nd XI bowler Hamdard Jan Temori with 45 points and third-placed Dan Potter, the 1st XI captain and batsman, with 42 points.

Asif said: "It’s an honour winning MVP for this season. Now I will have to perform much better for next season! It was a disappointing season as a whole due to the poor availability of players and playing with four to five changes every week, we just did not have any consistency. Hopefully, there will be more consistency and we can top our league next season.”

It caps a double personal triumph for Asif this season - he had already won the 1st XI’s player of the year award, voted for by his teammates, confirmed earlier this month.

Play-Cricket’s Mill Hill Village MVP leaderboard for 2023:
1. Naz Asif, 47pts
2. Hamdard Jan Temori, 45 pts
3. Dan Potter, 42 points
4. Obaid Ur Rehman, 37 pts
5. Sardar Mushtaq Ahmed, 37 pts
6. Dinesh Johnson, 36 pts
7. Andrew Godfrey, 35 pts
8. Shiban Sayed, 34 pts
9. Inthikhab Mazeez, 33 pts
10. Faraz Ahmad, 33 pts
11. Saahil Mehra, 30 pts
12. Philip Smith, 30 pts
13. Pryank Patel, 29 pts
14. Silan Panthi, 27 pts
15. Shash Seem, 27 pts
16. James Thompson, 27 pts
17. Ali Javed, 26 pts
18. Bakhtiar Sahil, 26 pts
19. Amit Chadha, 25 pts
20. Usman Humayun, 25 pts

Play-Cricket’s MVP leaderboard for Mill Hill Village Cricket Club is available here. Alternatively, download the PDF below (logged-in members only).

How Play-Cricket calculates the MVPs
MVPs are calculated by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s Play-Cricket website, the largest source of information and statistics on recreational cricket in the country. Each week in the 2023 season, Play-Cricket scored the Most Valuable Players at their respective clubs, including Mill Hill Village. The Play-Cricket MVP is a cumulative points system that rewards players for runs scored, wickets taken and catches held. A player achieves their points based on the following criteria:

BATTING
Batting points are achieved for:
• Every 20 runs (1pt)
• Reaching 50 (1pt)
• Reaching 100 (1pt)
• Scoring over 20% of a team's runs (1pt)
• Hitting eight or more boundaries (1pt)

BOWLING
Bowling points are achieved for:
• Each Wicket (1pt)
• Bonus point for taking 3 wickets in an innings (1pt)
• Bonus point for taking 5 wickets in an innings (1pt)
• Bowling 2 maidens (1pt)
• Achieving a benchmark economy rate of 3.0 (1pt)

FIELDING
Fielding points are accumulated for:
• Catches (1pt per)
• Run outs (1pt per)
• Stumping (1pt per)
• Bonus for 3 or more fielding dismissals in an innings (1pt)

CAPTAINCY
• A captain of a winning side will receive 1 bonus point

WINNING TEAMS
• All members of a winning team receive 1 bonus point

BATTING + BOWLING + FIELDING + CAPTAINCY + WINNING = TOTAL MVP