The Tucker Trophy

The trophy was named in honour of
Malcolm Tucker, known for his
displeasure of poor performances.

The Twenty20 World Cup has seen many awards handed out to many deserving winners; the title to the West Indies, Shane Watson was named the player of the tournament and Marlon Samuels collected the award for the best player of the final. But now we come to the award that no one wants to win: The Tucker Trophy.

The Tucker Trophy was created to recognise the efforts of some players that perhaps weren't quite up to scratch, performances that let both themselves and the team down. This is not to say that we simply picked on players with lesser ability than others, if anything it was the opposite. Many of the players who featured high in the final standings were players of some repute, players that can turn games by themselves, but for whatever reason couldn't do so. So without further ado, let's reveal the winner of the inaugural Tucker Trophy.

AND THE WINNER IS... TIM SOUTHEE

Source: Getty Images

Tim Southee entered the tournament as the spearhead of the New Zealand pace attack and with good reason, as his best is the equal of almost any cricketer going around (such as his efforts against Pakistan and India). However in this tournament he will be remembered for two much less impressive efforts. Against Sri Lanka he was called up by his captain Ross Taylor to bowl the Super Over, after the teams had been tied at the end of the match. After conceding 44 runs in his allotted overs during the regular innings, Southee bowled a horror over allowing 14 runs, including three wides.

A few nights later, he surpassed that effort. With New Zealand's place in the tournament at stake, Taylor again called upon Southee to bowl the deciding over to break the tie with the West Indies. This time bowling second, he needed only to stop the West Indies scoring 17 runs to win the match for his side. He conceded 19. 19 runs off just 6 balls, sending his side home and the West Indies on their way to the title. Imagine if Southee had held his nerve, we may very well have a different champion.

Before we completely condemn Tim Southee, we feel obliged to point out that he also picked up three votes in our MVP award, polling votes in two of New Zealand's matches. So if you wanted to be pedantic you could say his net-vote count was less than the runner-up of the Tucker Trophy, but that's not how we do it around here. And at only 24, Southee has plenty of time to redeem himself and could become the first player to win the Twenty20 MVP and Tucker Trophy, which would be quite a double. Chin up, Timmy!