New Year Honours 2020: England’s cricketers, Olivia Newton-John and Iain Duncan Smith make list
Singer Olivia Newton-John and four of England’s Cricket World Cup winners are among those to have made the 2020 New New Year Honours’ list.
Newton-John, who stared in the 1978 film Grease, has been made a dame for services to music, cancer research and charity. She set up a cancer centre near Melbourne in 2012 after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me,” she said.
This year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year, all-round cricketer Ben Stokes, has been made an OBE along with England’s Cricket World Cup winning coach Trevor Bayliss.
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Team captain Eoin Morgan receives the higher CBE award, while wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and Test captain Joe Root become MBEs.
Morgan said: “Winning the World Cup has been a dream come true and the honours and awards that have come since that day at Lord’s really mean a lot to everyone connected with the team.”
In total, 1097 people have been included on the honours’ list, with 51 per cent women and 9.1 per cent from a BAME background.
Sir Elton John, who was knighted in 1998, joins the elite companions of honour, an order restricted to 65 members.
While Queen drummer Roger Taylor is made an OBE after his band’s biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, set cinema box office records this year.
In politics, there are knighthoods for former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith and fellow Tory MP Robert Neil.
Meanwhile, Labour MP for Hull North, Diana Johnson becomes a dame for charitable and political service.
In TV, cooking stars Nigel Slater becomes an OBE, while Nidya Hussain and Ainsley Harriott become MBEs.
Sports presenter Gabby Logan also becomes an MBE for her services to broadcasting and promoting women’s sport.
There is also plenty of female sporting success celebrated with OBE awarded to taekwondo champion Jade Jones and MBEs for netballers Serena Guthrie and Joanne Harten after they made the World Cup final earlier this year.
Footballers Jill Scott of England and Loren Dykes of Wales also become MBEs.
Other damehoods have awarded to author Rose Tremain, former Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders, social justice campaigner Julia Unwin, FA director of Women’s football Susan Campbell, and Floella Benjamin, the TV presenter turned Lib Dem peer.
Among the other knighthoods include veteran cricketer Clive Lloyd, Oscar-winning film directors Sam Mendes and Steve McQueen, classical music presenter Humphrey Burton and playwright Christopher Hampton.