But even though Mal Loye cantered to the Lancashire CCC accolade of Player of the Year award, it was difficult to call the competition for the accolade anything other than high quality. 1296 runs - at an average approaching 60 in first-class cricket - in 2006 speaks for itself but just having the man around the place seems to be enough to give anyone a boost. Around the dressing room, there appears to be widespread confusion that the self-appointed practical joker of Lancashire CCC has been overlooked for a place in the winter's Champions Trophy squad. But their loss is the county's gain because it will mean that rather than bounding on to the World Cup and perhaps missing the start of the domestic season, Loye will be around to bolster the title charge in 2007. Instead of picking up international caps, Loye will be heading to New Zealand to play some cricket, the country where he first developed that trademark slog-sweep shot that so befuddles and bemuses bowlers on the county circuit in the shortened forms of the game. It may be over-simplifying the point a touch - and listeners to BBC Radio Lancashire's cricket coverage may empathise with this - to say that Loye's absence for six of the eight Twenty20 group games ultimately became the difference between qualification for the last eight and the eventual early exit. Loye - also the nation's leading run scorer in the C and G Trophy en route to the Lord's final - had quite a bit of competition for the gong. Dominic Cork, in particular, came good at the end and his tally of 42 wickets perhaps understates the importance of his role in leading the attack with the new ball in the absence of the likes of Chapple, Anderson, Flintoff and Mahmood towards the middle of the campaign. Meanwhile, the whole of the front line performed admirably as a unit to take regular wickets in all forms of the game and Stuart Law was impressive in reaching a thousand runs with the bat as well. But for consistency and entertainment value, none could hold a candle to Loye. On a dead fourth day against Yorkshire - one of the most stultifyingly dull sessions in Roses history - he even donned a trilby belonging to a spectator to field the last over at mid-on and at least amuse people. As well as being a run scorer, he's an entertainer. That's why Mal Loye is Lancashire's Player of the Year. | 
