The 2003 award was given to the Pakistani statistician, Abid Ali Kazi, who had spent many years collecting and logging the scores of first-class matches in Pakistan – a particularly difficult task, since so few scores had been published directly after the season in which the matches were played.
In the absence of Mr Kazi, Mr Griffiths read out a statement on his behalf, in which he thanked the Committee for considering him for the award. He went on to say that this recognition would encourage him to continue his work. He had had great difficulty over many years trying to gather missing information and to correct the numerous errors in the match scores that had actually appeared in print. He hoped that English publications would now use the correct spellings for the names of Pakistani cricketers – he had tried in vain to get alterations made over the years.