Press Trust of India
Dubai, Dec 23: Indian players failed to make a mark as Australians and South Africans swept the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Annual Awards with Steve Smith clinching the coveted trophies of ‘Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’. The awards were announced Wednesday.
Smith became the fourth Australian and 11th overall to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year 2015’. He follows in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014) and Michael Clarke (2013) to lift the coveted trophy since the inception of the awards in 2004.
The top-order batsman was also adjudged the ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’, which has made him only the seventh cricketer after Rahul Dravid (2004), Jacques Kallis (2005), Ponting (2006), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Clarke (2013) and Johnson (2014) to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year.
South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers was named the ‘ODI Cricketer of the Year’ for the second time in a row.
During the voting period, which ran from September 18, 2014 to September 13, 2015, the 26-year-old Smith finished as the leading run-scorer in Tests with 1,734 runs in 13 matches at an average of 82.57. It included seven centuries and six half centuries. In 26 ODIs, Smith scored 1,249 runs at an average of just under 60 with four centuries and eight half centuries. He was also a member of the Australia side which won the World Cup in 2015.
Reacting to the news, a delighted Smith said in a statement released by ICC here: “Given that there are so many great players around the world, I’m incredibly honoured to receive these awards. While team success is always my number one motivation, awards like this are very special. I’m thrilled and very proud to receive them.”
ICC chief executive meanwhile congratulated Richard Kettleborough for winning the ‘Umpire of the Year’ title for the third successive time. “I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners, including Richard Kettleborough for completing a hat-trick of ICC ‘Umpire of the Year titles’,” said Richardson.
De Villiers who had also won the same award in 2010, scored 1,265 runs in 20 innings at an average of just over 79 and a strike rate of 128.40 with two tons and nine half centuries.
A delighted de Villiers said: “It is an honour to be named as the ‘ODI Cricketer of the Year’. It’s certainly been a memorable year with many highlights but a lot of disappointments as well.”
