De Kock wins second SA men’s cricketer of the year award

Johannesburg, July 5 (IANS): South Africas limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock was named the men’s player of the year while 21-year-old Laura Wolvaardt won the women’s player of the year at Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) virtual award ceremony.

De Kock was also named Test Cricket of the Year and was voted by his peers as the SA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year. Wolvaardt on the other hand was named Proteas ODI Cricketer of the Year and voted SA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year.

This was the second time that De Kock has won the men’s cricketer of the year. He is only the sixth player to do so after 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).

The other winners of the award over the years since it was instituted in 2004 are Shaun Pollock (2007), Dale Steyn (2008), Graeme Smith (2009), Vernon Philander (2012) and Faf du Plessis (2019).

“Quinny and Laura have set the highest standards that we expect from our icon Proteas players,” CSA’s acting CEO Jacques Faul said via a press statement. “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.

“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.”