England all-rounder Ben Stokes has been honoured with the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for being the ICC player of the year. Stokes, who played a match-winning knock of 84 runs against New Zealand in at the World Cup, scored an impressive 719 runs and bagged 12 wickets in 20 ODIs during the voting period. In Tests, the all-rounder notched 821 runs and took 22 wickets in 11 games, with the highlight being his unbeaten 135 in the Ashes in Leeds.
Read | Ben Stokes wins players' award after World Cup heroics
A World Cup winner and scorer of one of the greatest Test innings of all time, Ben Stokes is the winner of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the world player of the year.#ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/5stP1fqSAP
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
“It is quite flattering to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year. 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,” said Ben Stokes after bagging the award.
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ODI Player of the Year:
Indian opener Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, won the ODI Player of the Year honour. The 32-year-old scored seven ODI tons in 2019 – five of which came at the World Cup – and notched 1490 runs in 28 ODIs at an average of 57.30 in the 2019 calendar year.
5️⃣ #CWC19 centuries
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
7️⃣ ODI centuries in 2019
Your 2019 ODI Cricketer of the Year is Rohit Sharma.#ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/JYAxBhJcNn
“I would like to thank the ICC for giving me this award and the BCCI for giving me the opportunity to represent the country. 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,” Rohit Sharma said after receiving the honour.
Read | Rohit Sharma dominates the year, Virat Kohli rules the ODI roost this decade
Test Player of the Year:
Australian pacer and world’s top-ranked Test bowler, Pat Cummins was named as the Test Player of the Year after picking a whopping 59 wickets in a mere 12 Tests in the calendar year. And with this, he became the first Australian to be honoured with the award since Steve Smith in 2017.
5️⃣9️⃣ Test wickets in 2019 💪
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
14 more than any other bowler 👀
Pat Cummins is the 2019 Test Cricketer of the Year 👏 #ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/QDC4LW1oHl
Emerging Cricket of the year:
Australian batsman, Marnus Labuschagne bagged the Emerging Men's Cricketer of the Year award after nailing down a place of his own in Tests. The 25-year-old, who came on as a concussion substitute for Smith, ended 2019 at the top of the run-charts, scoring a whopping 1022 runs at 68.13 in just 10 Tests.
Marnus Labuschagne had a stunning 2019 averaging 64.94 with the bat in Test cricket 🔥
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
A deserving winner of the 2019 ICC Men's Emerging Cricketer.#ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/OGt1BLqPvy
Read | Australia Labuschagne joins elite Test batting club
Spirit of the Cricket:
Indian captain, Virat Kohli was adjudged with the 'ICC Spirit of Cricket award' for stopping fans from booing Steve Smith during a World Cup encounter in England. The incident happened during the group stage game while Australia were bowling, and the Indian fans were particularly hostile against Smith. The skipper reacted and urged to stop the jeer.
Who remembers this gesture from Virat Kohli during #CWC19?
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
The Indian captain is the winner of the 2019 Spirit of Cricket Award 🙌 #ICCAwards pic.twitter.com/Z4rVSH8X7x
The incident earned several accolades, including one from former Australian captain Steve Waugh.
“Leadership reveals itself in many forms but I thought Virat Kohli’s gesture in calming down the rough reception given to Steve Smith from the Indian spectators was a class act that calmed a volatile situation,” Waugh, who led Australia to World Cup title in 1999, wrote for the ICC.
ICC: Men's Test Team of the Year: Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Neil Wagner, Nathan Lyon
ICC: Men's ODI Team of the Year: Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (captain), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
ICC Women's ODI Team of the Year: Alyssa Healy (Australia, wk), Smriti Mandhana (India), Tamsin Beaumont (England), Meg Lanning (Australia, captain), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Jess Jonassen (Australia), Shikha Pandey (India), Jhulan Goswami (India), Megan Schutt (Australia), Poonam Yadav (India)
ICC Women's T20I Team of the Year: Alyssa Healy (Australia, wk), Danielle Wyatt (England), Meg Lanning (Australia, captain), Smriti Mandhana (India), Lizelle Lee (South Africa), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Deepti Sharma (India), Nida Dar (Pakistan), Megan Schutt (Australia), Shabnim Ismail (South Africa), Radha Yadav (India)
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Daniel Leal-Olivas