Australian captain Steve Smith has been named the International Cricket Council’s cricketer of the year.
The batsman won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for his achievement. Smith was also named the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year. There was no Indian in the list of awards this year.
The ICC website said that Smith finished as the leading run-scorer in Tests with 1,734 runs in 25 innings of 13 matches at an average of 82.57. This included seven centuries and six half-centuries. In 26 One-Day Internationals, Smith scored 1,249 runs at an average of just under 60 with four centuries and eight half-centuries. He was a member of the Australia side which won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 earlier this year.
The ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year award went to the incredible AB de Villiers. de Villiers scored 1,265 runs in 20 innings at an average of 79 and a strike rate of 128.4. He hit two centuries and nine half-centuries. Earlier this month, de Villiers was named as the captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
Australia women’s captain Meg Lanning has been named as the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, while West Indies women’s captain Stafanie Taylor won her maiden ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award.
On its website and in a series of tweets from its official handle, the ICC announced that the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award goes to Faf du Plessis for his 119 off 56 balls against the West Indies.
Australia won another feather in its cap as bowler Josh Hazlewood was named the ICC Emerging Player of the Year.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who has announced he would retire from international cricket before the World Twenty20 in India, was named the winner of the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for 2015, for ‘inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit’.
The David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year for 2015 went to Richard Kettleborough.
The voting period for the awards ran from September 18, 2014 to September 13, 2015.
The full list of ICC Award 2015 winners is:
ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Steve Smith (Australia)
ICC Test Cricketer of the Year – Steve Smith (Australia)
ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year – AB de Villiers (South Africa)
ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Meg Lanning (Australia)
ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)
ICC T20I Performance of the Year – Faf du Plessis (South Africa) (119, 56 balls, 11×4, 5×6 – 2nd T20I vs West Indies, 11 January 2015, Johannesburg)
ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Josh Hazlewood (Australia)
ICC Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year – Khurram Khan (UAE)
ICC Spirit of Cricket Award – Brendon McCullum (New Zealand)
ICC Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy) – Richard Kettleborough