AB de Villiers has been named as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year.
South Africa’s ODI captain also won the award in 2010.
In the voting period (18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015), De Villiers scored 1,265 runs in 20 innings at an average of just over 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.
‘It is an honour to be named as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2015. It’s certainly been a memorable year with many highlights but a lot of disappointments as well,’ De Villiers said.
‘If I was to look back, the century I scored against the West Indies at the Wanderers will probably go down as the most memorable knocks of the year. In saying that, centuries count for nothing if the team isn’t winning, so hopefully in the future I can contribute to many more Proteas wins.’
Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s T20I captain, has won the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award for his 56-ball 119 against the West Indies in the second T20I in Johannesburg on 11 January. Du Plessis had clubbed 11 fours and five sixes in his innings.
‘That was definitely one of the most exciting matches that I’ve been involved in as a T20 player,’ Du Plessis said.
‘Even though I scored a century, I still ended up on the losing side, but it was special to be part of it all, the fans were given a treat with two centuries in a T20 match.
‘I certainly felt “in the zone” walking to the crease and luckily managed to middle most of the deliveries I faced after getting in in the first over. It was definitely a special innings, made even more special by the electric atmosphere at the Wanderers.’
Australian Steve Smith was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named ICC Cricketer of the Year.
He becomes the fourth Australia player and 11th player overall to win the award.
Smith 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.
Other recipients of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint-winners in 2005), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Jonathan Trott (2011) and Kumar Sangakkara (2012).
The top-order batsman was also adjudged the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, which has made him only the seventh cricketer after Dravid (2004), Kallis (2005), Ponting (2006), Sangakkara (2012), Clarke (2013) and Johnson (2014) to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year.
During the voting period, which ran from 18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015, the 26-year-old from New South Wales 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 in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.
