And the winner is......

The ECB to be fair.

On Monday myself and Mark Rowe, first team skipper and the person who secretly nominated me for this award, attended the ECB Annual NatWest Outstanding Services to Cricket Awards or OSCAs as they are known, at the home of cricket, Lords.

Amongst 400 guests and stars from the cricket world we received a tour of the ground, including the JP Morgan Media Centre, the Pavilion, the home team dressing room and the famous long room. We were then treated to a champagne reception followed by a 3 course meal around which the awards would be presented.

Test Match Special's Jonathan Agnew was the Master of Ceremonies and before each award was presented he interviewed the cricketing celebrity that would present the award. Each award had 3 nominees selected from all of the county submissions and so to make it to Lords was a triumph in itself.

I had been lucky enough to win at the Lancashire Cricket Board OSCAs in July in the Behind the Scenes category.

The day wasn't so much about winners it was about celebrating grassroots cricket. The ECB appear to genuinely believe in the grassroots ethos about encouraging children into the sport. The 3 former England captains in attendance (Gatting, Vaughan & Strauss), the current England Ladies captain (Charlotte Edwards) and in my mind a future England captain (Jonny Bairstow) spoke passionately about grassroots cricket and the benefit that sport plays in young people's lives.

David Collier, Chief Executive of the ECB spoke about encouraging children into the sport, particularly girls and understands that if cricket is a pyramid with the England test team at the top then the base is grassroots cricket - clubs, schools, districts, counties without whom the test side simply wouldn't exist.

I received my runners up award from Charlotte Edwards and Mark Lane who is the head coach of the England Ladies team. I felt incredibly privileged to be there and am incredibly grateful to Rowie for nominating me. I should also like to thank all the people that support the club and the things I try to implement, but most of all thanks to Jen who is very often a junior sports widow as I am always off somewhere doing something related to the football club or the cricket club.

I am incredibly uncomfortable with personal awards and praise. I do what I do because I believe that sport can play an important role in children's lives. It has the obvious benefits of health, friendship, teamwork, individual application - making better citizens of the future. But in the current climate and with the forthcoming Welfare Reforms, sport may become the highlight of a child's week. We need to make sure that children can continue to access grassroots sport, that we do not become financially exclusive and that simple obstacles such as subs, kit, warm clothing, don't become a barrier to children remaining or becoming involved in sport.

My next blog will be about this subject and some ideas I have on how we may offset the effects.

In the meantime I have some fantastic memories of the day I went to Lords.