It was Kagiso Rabada’s night at the annual Cricket South Africa awards on Saturday, 2 June. The young pacer picked up six awards of the eight he was eligible for, including the top South African Cricketer of the Year honour.
Dane van Niekerk, the captain, and all-rounder, won the Cricketer of the Year award among women.
For both of them, it was the second time winning the prizes, having won it in 2016. They join Jacques Kallis (2004, 2011), Makhaya Ntini (2005, 2006), Hashim Amla (2010, 2013) and AB de Villiers (2014, 2015) as two-time winners.
No player, however, has gone home with more than five gongs, until Rabada this year. He picked up honours for Test Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year, and was chosen by both players and fans as their respective Player of the Year. His dismissal of David Warner in the third Test in Newlands was declared the Delivery of the Year.
It marks another success in a strong run of form for the 23-year-old, who is ranked No.1 on the MRF Tyres ICC Test Rankings for Bowlers. He is the leading wicket-taker in Tests in 2018, with 38 wickets in seven matches to go with his 57 in 2017 in as many games.
The one big award that he missed out on, T20I Cricketer of the Year, went to AB de Villiers.
Aiden Markram capped off a season in which he was named stand-in ODI captain as International Newcomer of the Year.
Van Niekerk, who is ranked third and fourth respectively in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI and T20I rankings for all-rounders, led the side to the semifinal of the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. On the way, she picked up record figures of 4/0 against the Windies Women.
Laura Wolvaardt, the young opener, was named ODI Player of the Year and was also chosen by her peers for an award. Chloe Tryon, who has batted at a strike-rate of 178.94 so far in T20Is in 2018, was T20I Player of the Year.
Among the domestic honours, Tabraiz Shamsi was hailed for both his one-day and T20 performances.
The programme paid special tribute to de Villiers, who announced his retirement recently.
