Northern Districts Cricket Association's 2018/19 Annual Awards will see the introduction of two new awards for the Female and Male Cricketer of the Year.

Following last year's awards the board and executive decided there was a glaring omission in our awards evening, being that Northern Districts Cricket only had one player of the year award, not two that respectively recognised the performances of our female and male players.

At a board meeting in August a proposal was approved to create individual awards and name them after two of our greatest ever players; Nicola Browne and Daniel Vettori.

Both are our most recent life members and have done so much as representatives at the elite level for Northern Districts. Some of their highlights include:

• Both at times being rated as the best in the world

• Both spent their entire playing careers (age-group to first-class) as Northern Districts players

• Both have publicly acknowledged their allegiance to Northern Districts and the debt that they owe to Northern Districts Cricket in their development as players and people

• They are the best possible male and female role models for our young players

• Nicola is our first female life member

Career details:
Nicola Browne

• 181 international matches for the WHITE FERNS

• 3,578 runs, 136 wickets and 59 catches for the WHITE FERNS

• Player of the Tournament at the Women's World Cup in 2010

• 177 matches for the Northern Spirit (1999-2015) - record holder

• 4,953 runs for the Northern Spirit - record holder

• 174 wickets for the Northern Spirit - record holder

• 62 catches for the Northern Spirit - record holder

Daniel Vettori

• One of the outstanding players in world cricket over the past two decades (over that period often rated as the top spin bowler in the ICC world rankings)

• Youngest person to play Test Cricket for New Zealand

• One of only eight players in Test history to have scored over 3,000 runs and taken over 300 wickets

• 112 Tests, 291 ODIs, 34 T20s for the BLACKCAPS (1996-2015)

• Played for World XI in 2005/06

• 362 Test wickets (second-most for New Zealand) and 305 ODI wickets (record holder)

• 4,531 Test runs, including six centuries

• Captained New Zealand 2007-11

• Limited appearances for ND (1995-2015) due to international commitments - 22 first-class matches, 44 one-day matches, 31 T20s