Boult takes top honours at awards
TRENT Boult took the two major honours at the New Zealand Cricket awards last night.
Boult was named test player of the year as well as claiming the supreme award, the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, for player of the year.
It was Boult’s first time winning both awards. He was recognised for his superb form throughout the 201718 New Zealand cricket season.
The 28yearold took 77 wickets across all formats, including 25 scalps at 20.9 in the test arena.
He became the sixth New Zealander to take 200 test wickets, and the sixthfastest from any country to bring up 100 ODI wickets.
Boult was also named in the ICC Men’s ODI Team of 2017, but pipped for the New Zealand ODI player of the year by Ross Taylor.
Taylor claimed the award for the third time, having averaged 78 over the last year, capped off by his matchwinning unbeaten 181 against England last month. Taylor also received the Redpath Cup for firstclass batting.
Also doing the double was Sophie Devine, who won the women’s ODI and twenty20 player of the year awards. Devine averaged 55 with the bat in ODIs and 31 in T20s, while taking 15 wickets across the two formats.
The similarly bighitting Colin Munro was named men’s twenty20 player of the year, after a season in which he averaged 52 at a blistering strike rate of 182. Munro smoked two centuries in the past year, becoming the first player to reach three tons in the format.
Neil Wagner won the Winsor Cup for firstclass bowling for the second year in a row, and Anton Devcich was named Super Smash player of the year after leading Northern Districts to its first title since the 201314 season.
The women’s domestic awards were swept by Auckland, with Maddy Green claiming the Ruth Martin Cup for batting and Holly Huddleston the Phyl Blackler Cup for bowling.
Northern Districts’ Pat Malcon received the Bert Sutcliffe Medal for outstanding services to cricket, having dedicated more than 20 years to the game. He has been involved in the development of Cook Island cricket and the Northern Maori programmes. — NZME