Quinton de Kock was named men’s cricket of the year at the Cricket South Africa annual awards, his second such honour after 2017.
De Kock, who is captain of the South African national team in limited-overs cricket, also bagged the Test cricketer of the year award.
Opener Laura Wolvaardt was adjudged the women’s cricketer of the year and the ODI cricketer of the year. Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi was named the ODI and T20 player of the year, while David Miller was voted the fans’ favourite player.
Anrich Nortje was declared the international men’s newcomer of the year. Shabnim Ismail was the women’s T20 player of the year, while left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba was the women’s newcomer of the year.
Elite club
With his honour on Saturday night, de Kock joined an elite club of cricketers with multiple such honours. They are: Jacques Kallis (2004 and 2011), Makhaya Ntini (2005 and 2006), Hashim Amla (2010 and 2013), AB de Villiers (2014 and 2015) and Kagiso Rabada (2016 and 2018).
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The other previous winners since the awards were instituted in 2004 are Shaun Pollock (2007), Dale Steyn (2008), Graeme Smith (2009), Vernon Philander (2012) and Faf du Plessis (2019).
‘Outstanding leader’
“Quinny is the leading wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket and is, in fact, one of the leading batsmen in both red-ball and white-ball cricket. He is also starting to emerge as an outstanding leader,” CSA Acting CEO, Jacques Faul was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo .
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Wolvaardt became the youngest winner of South Africa’s top women’s award at 21 years and two months. “At the age of 21 her best years are ahead of her and she will be a key player when the team go to the Women’s World Cup next year,” Faul said.
The awards were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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