The Cricket South Africa (CSA) awards were presented in Midrand on Friday, July 7, and pacers Anrich Nortje and Shabnim Ismail were named men’s and women’s cricketers of the year for South Africa, respectively.
Notably, Ismail, who recently retired, received her third Player of the Year award, while Nortje took home her second. In the previous year, both of these cricketers were outstanding for South Africa, earning them rightful claims to the top spot.
Notably, Ismail took eight wickets in six matches during the previous T20 World Cup, assisting her team in reaching the championship game in Cape Town despite a 19-run defeat. However, in all three game styles, Anrich Nortje has proven to be a formidable opponent. Kagiso Rabada, his longtime companion, has been named Test Player of the Year.
The ODI Player of the Year has been selected as Temba Bavuma. He will probably feel more confident after hearing this ahead of the 2018 ODI World Cup, which will start on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in India. Reeza Hendricks, who has played for South Africa in the shortest format of the game, has been named the T20 Player of the Year in the meantime. Young Gerald Coetzee received the title of male Newcomer of the Year.
On the women’s side, Nonkululeko Mlaba, age 23, was named women’s T20I player of the year, while Laura Wolvaardt won women’s ODI player of the year. Speaking about the winners, CSA Chief Executive Officer Pholetsi Moseki said he was happy to witness so many strong performances over the course of the last year and added that it was very difficult to choose only one as the winner.
I’d like to congratulate each winner on their honors on behalf of Cricket South Africa. The judges had an exceedingly difficult job because there were so many excellent performances and deserving nominees over the last season. All of our national teams have significantly improved over the past season, as evidenced by their performances, according to Pholetsi, who was quoted by ESPNcricinfo.