Every week this summer, dozens of Mill Hill Village members pored over the five Saturday XI team sheets before the noon deadline, agonising over the picks they hoped would fire their Fantasy team to the top.

Ask any manager and they’ll tell you: Fantasy Club Cricket has turbocharged their summer — enabling them to build their own Village XI, trading banter over every selection with their teammates and chasing cash prizes along the way.

Fantasy Club Cricket MHVCC 2026 player standings

With £55m to spend on 11 players across batters, bowlers, allrounders and one wicketkeeper, there were tough choices to make. Managers had to select at least one player in each position, and could only choose players from our Saturday Herts Premier Cricket League sides. Player values were set by our own League Administrator.

Some players, such as Sam Smith, were so consistently high-scoring — and so popular with rival managers — that leaving them out felt like a risk in itself. By the final week, 88% of Fantasy managers had the 1st XI allrounder in their team.

The difference-makers were sometimes the hidden bargains: newer or less established players who scored big points but initially remained under the radar. Think Wali Rehman or Alex Braithwaite early on in the season.

Take part in the Toyota Good For Cricket Prize Draw

Managers got rewarded for spotting a player early, because player values automatically adjust based on weekly performances. Take newcomer Asfandyar Durrani, pictured above left with 3s captain Ken Shakoor, who started the season at £3.3m before his value rose, potentially pricing him out of rival managers’ reach later on.

Other questions our Fantasy team managers had to mull over the course of a season: when to activate the triple captain - when managers boost their skipper to receive triple points for one week only at any point during the season; when to deploy their one transfer wildcard per season, allowing them to make free, unlimited transfers for one week only; do you pick the player who last week scored a century or took a five-for? Or has he already peaked for the summer, meaning you look elsewhere?

2026 awards night

It’s not just about stats. Sentiment comes into it, too. How many of your teammates do you want to pick? Do you select your own family members or, gulp, leave them on the sidelines? Do you pick yourself? You’d be surprised how many did.

Less surprising, allrounders — as defined, like all our positions, by our League Administrator — dominate the 2026 Team of the Year. Six make the final XI, alongside one batsman who also bowls, three bowlers — including one who scored two centuries — and a wicketkeeper who opened the batting.

All five Saturday sides are represented: a handful from the 1st XI, one from the 2s, two from the 3s, two from the 4s and one from the 5s, who also played four games for the 4s.

Mill Hill Village’s Fantasy Club Cricket manager of the year was Jay Nandha, pictured below, whose dubiously named Kumble My Balls team amassed 8,909 points. Nandha, who plays for the 1st XI, put his success in his debut Fantasy campaign down to research.

MHVCC Fantasy Club Cricket 2026 final team standings

Nandha told millhillvillagecricketclub.co.uk: “I chose my team by looking at the team selection for all five Saturday teams and then looked at their performances in previous games to see how well they’ve been performing and chose my players that way.

“I think I came out on top because I try and keep up to date with how all five teams were doing and who was doing well in each team, rather than just the 1st XI.

“I also looked at the opposition the team was facing - I’d be more inclined to choose players playing opposition near the bottom of the league.

“There’s no real secret; I just think I may have researched a lot more than others may have.”

Looking at Nandha’s final Fantasy team from week 17, it contains six selections from our team of the year, plus two from our “bubbling under” list.

Let’s take a closer look at the Fantasy Club Cricket Team of the Season, made up of the 11 highest point-scoring Fantasy players this summer. These players represented the best of Mill Hill Village Cricket Club in 2026, in a historic summer of unprecedented success that saw us claim four titles.

Fantasy Club Cricket 2026 Team of the Season

1. Joe Sheridan (4th XI) 618 points
Our 4th XI opener had the highest points tally of any Village batsman in Fantasy, ahead of Bharath Kashyap (605 points) and his 4s opening partner, Rithik Mepani (594 points), who scored two tons and with Sheridan registered two 50-plus partnerships. Sheridan reached the 20s four times, the 30s twice, the 40s once and notched a top score of 68. He also claimed 15 wickets with his slow-medium seam bowling. Evergreen.

2. Obaid Ur Rehman (1st XI) 672 points
Opened the batting on occasion for our Saturday 1s and regularly for our Sunday 1s, Rehman is one of six players classed as an allrounder in this XI, proving the value of those who can bat and bowl in Fantasy. Scored 258 runs for the Saturday 1s at a strike rate of 120.48, far higher than any of his teammates. If he gets in, he’d certainly get this team off to a flyer. Destructive.

3. Nir Shah (1st XI) 627 points
The Village old boy was welcomed back to the club by club captain Devraj Ray in 2026, adding strength to both the 1s’ batting and bowling with his 297 runs and 13 wickets. He also gained vital points for his nimble work in the field: four catches and two runouts. Utilitarian.

4. Sam Smith (1st XI) 1,122 points
The Village’s only £10million man repeated last year’s feat by once again gaining the highest points tally of any player at the club. The allrounder comfortably outstripped his haul last year by scoring more runs (404 at 32.50) and taking more wickets (32 at 11.86). The second-highest wicket-taker overall in Division 4A. Talismanic.

5. Marcus Cara (1st XI) 802 points
Our 1st XI’s second-highest run scorer (373 runs) and fourth-highest wicket taker (18), Cara has the third-highest points tally of any allrounder at the club this year. Three 50s with a top score of 84 in week 12, against Harpenden 3rd XI. Match winner.

6. Asfandyar Durrani (3rd XI) 885 points
Saved the best till last - hitting the highest score of any Village batter in 2026 on the final Saturday of the season, 139 against Old Camdenians off just 63 balls, including 10 sixes. His skipper Shakoor described the knock in the Herts & Minds Weekly as “a brilliant innings - powerful but controlled.” Also scored 106 against North Enfield in May. But Durrani is a fast bowler first and foremost: He took 21 wickets at 13.19 this summer, including 5-37 against Broxbourne. But these numbers would be greater had it not been for a knee injury. Master blaster.

7. David Hickey (4th/5th XI) 861 points (wk)
Scored his first Village ton this season, 110 not out for the 4th XI against Ware in week 13. Regularly got runs at the top of the order for the 4s (197 runs in three innings, averaging 98.50) or 5s (327 runs in 11 innings at an average of 36.33). Three not-outs added valuable bonus points. As a keeper, he completed 14 dismissals (including two stumpings), the most in Division 14 East. Value increased by £600k to £5.6m by the end of the season. Consistent.

8. Khalid Khan Musazai (2nd XI) 687 points
The off-spinner took 28 wickets, often beating batsmen through the air to bowl them out or trapping them LBW. Also a capable bat who scored 173 runs, though he didn't bat in several matches. Statistically, one of the Village’s highest-performing players over the last two summers. Fourth-highest points tally of any allrounder this campaign. Deceptive.

9. Speenghar Ahmadzai (3rd XI) 944 points
Only Sam Smith has a greater Fantasy points haul and only Smith took more wickets than Ahmadzai’s 31 this year. A key figure for the 3s as Ken Shakoor’s side dominated their division to win the title. Also: 232 runs. Seven catches. Two run-outs. All action.

10. Shash Seem (4th XI) 624 points
Scored 182 runs, including a top score of 71, Seem’s highest score after more than a decade with the club. But mainly earned points with the ball in hand, not just for his wickets (23 of them) but also for his maidens, sending down more scoreless overs (19) than any other bowler-classified Village player apart from his 4s strike partner Mohammad Soleja (24). Parsimonious.

11. Tommy Smith (1st XI) 743 points
Most Improved Player at the club’s awards night earlier this month, the 1s strike bowler bagged the third-most wickets of any Village player this summer. Smith was also the fifth-highest wicket taker overall in Division 4A. Secured handy bonus points for his seven not-outs at the bottom of the order and three five-wicket hauls. Metronomic.
*Stats refer to the 17 gameweeks of the 2026 Fantasy season (starting Saturday, May 16, when MHVCC launched its Fantasy league)

Bubbling under (players with 500-plus points)
:: Momin Sadozai, allrounder (1st XI/2nd XI) 605 points
:: Bharath Kashyap, batsman (2nd XI/3rd XI/4th XI) 605 points
:: Rithik Mepani, batsman (4th/5th XI) 594 points
:: Amir Sultan, allrounder (3rd XI) 524 points
:: Luke Fletcher, batsman (4th/5th XI) 515 points

MHVCC 2026 MVP Leaderboard
In addition to the Fantasy Club Cricket 2026 Team of the Season, we can also reveal Play-Cricket's 2026 MVP Leaderboard for Mill Hill Village CC. Click here to take a look at the top 20.

How the MVP scores work
Each week of the season, Play-Cricket scored the Most Valuable Players at each recreational cricket club, including MHVCC. Points were earned for wickets, runs and dismissals, as well as winning matches. To see the full criteria, visit here.