Brunt & Prior: The Hardest Working Cricketers in Un-Showy-Business

There is something very appropriate about Katherine Brunt picking up the England Cricketer of the Year award alongside Matt Prior.

Neither are natural athletes; but both are the epitome of unfussy cricketers who have supplemented a dram of talent with a bottle of bloody-minded hard work to reach the top of their games and (just as importantly) stay there!

Katherine in particular has battled her demons along the way - leading to her being told early in her career that she would never make it. But she has come out the other side to be the spearhead of the team for EIGHT years now - playing for England more than 100 times, taking over 150 wickets along the way.

Together with Anya Shrubsole, Charlotte Edwards and Holly Colvin, she held England together during the recent World Cup campaign - which I think Cricinfo was a little unfair to term "disastrous", by the way!

Off the field, Brunt (again like Prior) is a bit more of a private person. In fact, I realised last night that she is one of the few mainstay members of the team whose voice I can't recall. I think the only time I've heard her say anything at all was during a match against the West Indies when she was hit for six by Diandra Dottin - one word was clearly audible from the boundary! (But as this is a family blog... I'll leave it to your imagination what it was!)