CSA awards: Quinton de Kock, Laura Wolvaardt bag top honors
The Proteas limited-overs skipper Quinton de Kock was named South Africa Men's Cricketer of the Year during a virtual awards ceremony held on Saturday. The southpaw also clinched the Test Cricket of the Year award. Meanwhile, Laura Wolvaardt bagged both South Africa Women's Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year awards at the ceremony. Here is more.
Sixth player to clinch the award twice
Quinton De Kock is only the sixth player to bag the South African Cricketer of the Year award twice. He received first such honor after a terrific 2017-18 season. 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) are the other players to achieve the feat.
Quinton de Kock in international cricket (since January 2019)
Quinton de Kock led South Africa's campaign amid the rough patch, last year. Despite the team's failure across formats, he emerged as the lone warrior. Since January 2019, he has accumulated 910 runs from 13 international innings at an average of 56.87.
Wolvaardt was in sublime form last year
At 21, Laura Wolvaardt became the youngest winner of South Africa's top women's award. She was a standout performer in the ODI series against India and New Zealand. In the last calendar year, Wolvaardt amassed 335 runs from nine ODI matches at 41.87. She also starred for South Africa at the 2020 Women's T20 World Cup with a strike-rate of 149.21.
Ismail, Mlaba win big among Women's cricketers
Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi secured both Men's white-ball awards after being named ODI and T20 player of the year. His compatriot Anrich Nortje was adjudged the Men's Newcomer of the Year. Furthermore, David Miller was voted the fans' favourite player. Among women, Shabnim Ismail was named the T20I Cricketer of the Year, while Nonkululeko Mlaba bagged the Women's Newcomer of the Year accolade.
Jacques Faul heaps praise on the award winners
Cricket South Africa's chief executive Jacques Faul lavished praise on Quinton de Kock and Laura Wolvaardt. "Quinny and Laura have set the highest standards that we expect 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 said.
