New Sponsor On Board As Most Valuable Players Recognised Cricket's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award will start its second season with a new sponsor - Mitre 10 - and for the first time will include women's and international cricket. The new sponsor for the 2009/10 MVP

competition, Mitre 10, has signed a two year sponsorship deal and company spokesperson Peter Stewart said it's fantastic to be involved with the MVP competition.

"Mitre 10 is delighted to support the MVP rankings for the first time this season," he said.

"Our company has a long standing heritage of being New Zealand owned and operated, which leads onto our passion to support local and national community initiatives.

"It is tremendously exciting that this season we are able to identify and reward the leading domestic players, as well as top performers in the BLACKCAPS, and women's domestic and international competitions.

"We are looking forward to being involved with our 'summer game' through the MVP rankings. We hope that fans and cricket lovers will join us in following the success of their favorite players and teams over the coming season".

Last season saw Central Districts batsman Mathew Sinclair take out MVP honours for his amazing displays with the bat, being the leading run scorer during the 2008/09 season.

"I am really excited about MVP this season and hope to be able to perform well enough to take out the overall points category again this year," he said. "While it was great to win the MVP for batting last season, I think it is great that the awards will be contested within each competition this year".

In 2009/10 the MVP competition will be expanded to include both men's and women's domestic and international competitions.

The domestic men's MVP competition pits batsmen against bowlers in the Plunket Shield, HRV Cup and 1-day competitions, while the domestic women's MVP will be the outstanding player from the 1-day and Twenty20 forms of the game.

BLACKCAPS captain and Northern Knights all rounder Daniel Vettori thinks the Mitre 10 MVP is a great idea. "It's a brilliant concept that recognises the skills of modern cricketers," he said. "A modern cricketer needs to be multi skilled and it is great this can now be measured."

The MVP recognises excellence in the field throughout the season and players receive points for runs with the bat and wickets with the ball, which are then tallied onto a table. At the end of the season the points are totalled to find the player who has contributed considerably to their team over the season.

Not only will all eyes be on those players who have already made a name for themselves within the domestic competitions, but the MVP is also the perfect place to start recognising bright young talent coming through the ranks.

The domestic season starts with the Plunket Shield competition, beginning on November 10. First round matches include:

* Central Stags v Auckland Aces, Nelson Park, Napier

* Otago Volts v Northern Knights, University Oval, Dunedin

* Wellington Firebirds v Canterbury Wizards, Allied Nationwide Finance, Basin Reserve, Wellington