Quinton de Kock named ‘Cricketer of the Year’ at CSA awards, Laura Wolvaardt bags women’s honour

South African skipper Quinton De Kock has been rewarded for his good show last year by being named ‘Cricketer of the Year’ at the 2020 Cricket South Africa (CSA) award ceremony held virtually on Saturday.

By receiving the honour, the 27-year-old became only the sixth player from the country to pick up the award for the second time.

Makhaya Ntini, Kagiso Rabada, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis are the other South African players who have recieved the honour twice.

Meanwhile, De Kock has also bagged ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’ award.

Meanwhile, Laura Wolvaardt has received the same award in the women’s category besides also being named One-Day International (ODI) Cricketer of the Year.

Commenting on the same,  CSA’s acting chief executive Dr Jacques Faul said that De Kock and Laura have set the highest standards that are expected from our icon Proteas players.

“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 as witnessed by the Proteas clean sweep of Australia in their recent ODI series,” the International Cricket Council (ICC) official website quoted Faul as saying.

“Laura was named in the tournament select XI at the conclusion of the ICC Women’s World T20 which tells us a great deal about the esteem in which she is held at international level. At the age of 21, her best years are ahead of her and she will be a key player when the Momentum Proteas go to the ICC Women’s World Cup next year,” he added.

Besides them, fast bowler Lungi Ngidi has been named the Men’s ODI Cricketer as well as T20I Cricketer of the Year .

Anrich Nortje, on the other hand, was declared Newcomer of the Year at the gala event organised by the CSA. 

Nortje made his international debut against Sri Lanka in March 2019. Since then, the right-arm bowler has claimed 19 wickets in six Tests, 14 wickets in seven ODIs and two wickets in three T20Is he has played so far. 

In the women’s category, pacer Shabnim Ismail recieved the Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award.

Meanwhile, left-arm Nonkululeko Mlaba clinched the Women’s Newcomer of the Year award.