ICC NAMES STOKES PLAYER OF THE YEAR
ROHIT SHARMA BEST IN ODIS, PAT CUMMINS IN TESTS
NEWDELHI:ROHIT Sharma’s dream run with the bat in 2019 was rewarded with the batsman chosen the ICC ODI Player of the Year on Wednesday with England all-rounder Ben Stokes a runaway winner for the biggest prize—sri Garfield Sobers trophy for the ICC Player of the Year.
Stokes has been the driving force for England across formats. His match-winning efforts in the hosts’ World Cup triumph was capped by an unbeaten 84 in the thrilling final win over New Zealand. He carried the form into the Ashes, where he produced a sensational 135 not out to steer England to victory in the third Test at Headingley. Thanks to
Stokes, England recoverd from 286/9 to chase down 359.
“To be recognised and be the person to win that (award) it’s pretty amazing,” Stokes, 28, said in a statement. Stokes scored 821 runs and took 22 wickets in 11 Tests, and aggregated 719 runs and claimed 12 wickets in 20 ODIS during the phase of voting by former players and media reprsentatives.
“The past 12 months have been incredible for England cricket and to lift the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time was our greatest achievement,” he said. “This award is testament to my team-mates and the support staff that have been there every step of the way. Fundamentally, without the support of these individuals, we would never have achieved our objective of lifting a major trophy.”
Stokes, who extended his form into this year with a Man-of-thematch performance in the second Test victory over South Africa at Cape Town last week, including the last three South Africa victory, hailed the strong bond between the players.
“There is an incredible bond between team-mates and to savour our achievements, whether that’s winning the World Cup final at Lord’s or digging deep to win a Test against Australia at Headingley,” he said.
“It is satisfying you can accomplish these superb highs together. The last 12 months have been the best in my career, and I believe what we attained will be the catalyst to achieve further success over the next few years.”
Sharma was in red-hot form at the World Cup, where India reached the semi-finals. He aggregated 648 runs in nine matches, averaging 81 and with a strike rate of over 98. Five centuries and a fifty underlined Sharma’s consistency in the tournament. He scored seven ODI centuries last year.
Sharma said: “It is great to be recognised in this fashion. We are very happy with the way we performed as a team in 2019. We could have done better but we have a lot of positives and a lot to look forward to in 2020.”
Virat Kohli’s leadership qualities were acknowledged after he was given the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award for asking fans not to boo Australian batsman Steve Smith but applaud him when the teams met at the World Cup. Smith was returning to international cricket after suspension for the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa the previous year.
CAPTAIN KOHLI
Kohli was also named captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.
Paceman Deepak Chahar was the other Indian winner. He won the ICC T20 performance of the year accolade for his six for seven runs against
Bangladesh in Nagpur, which included a hat-trick. It is the best bowling figures in the format. “Taking six wickets conceding only seven runs was a dream performance for me and will always remain close to my heart,” the
Rajasthan seamer was quoted as saying.
Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins won the ICC Test Player of the Year award. Cummins has been a force in international cricket since his return from long-term injury on the India Test tour of 2017 and was the most successful Test pacer last year. “59 Test wickets in 2019, 14 more than any other bowler Pat Cummins is the 2019 Test Cricketer of the Year,” ICC tweeted.
Scotland’s Kyle Coetzer was named Associate Cricketer of the Year. He led the Associate batsmen in ODIS with 880 runs in 18 matches and 702 runs in 22 T20IS.
England umpire Richard Illingworth was awarded the David Shepherd Trophy for Umpire of the Year.