Steve Smith wins the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2015 award

23 December, Dubai (CRICKETNMORE) - Steve Smith has become the fourth Australia player and 11th player overall to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2015.

Smith follows in the footsteps of Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014) and Michael Clarke (2013) to lift the coveted trophy since the inception of the awards in 2004.

Other recipients of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint-winners in 2005), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Jonathan Trott (2011) and Kumar Sangakkara (2012).

Smith was also adjudged the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, which has made him only the seventh cricketer after Dravid (2004), Kallis (2005), Ponting (2006), Sangakkara (2012), Clarke (2013) and Johnson (2014) to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year.

South Africa’s ODI captain AB de Villiers has been named as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year. He had also won this award in 2010. Earlier this month, de Villiers was named as the captain of the ICC ODI Team of the Year.

De Villiers’ team-mate and South Africa’s T20I captain Faf du Plessis has won the ICC T20I Performance of the Year award for his 56-ball 119 against the West Indies in the second T20I in Johannesburg on 11 January 2015. Du Plessis had clubbed 11 fours and five sixes in his swashbuckling innings.

Australia women’s captain Meg Lanning has been named as the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, while West Indies women’s captain Stafanie Taylor has won her maiden ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award.

Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has won the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year award. Hazlewood, who played alongside Steve Smith in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008 and won the same event two years later in New Zealand, took 40 wickets in nine Tests in the voting period at an average of 21.75 with his best figures being five for 38 against the West Indies at Sabina Park. In the 10 ODIs in the same period, he took 16 wickets with five for 31 against South Africa in Perth as his best figures.

 Hazlewood was also a member of the Australia side which won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The last Australia player to win the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year award was Peter Siddle (2009), while Shaun Tait won in 2007.
 
Former United Arab Emirates captain Khurram Khan has been named as the ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year after he finished as the leading run-scorer with 425 runs in nine one-day matches. This award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the 10 Test nations.

 New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit. This was clearly evident throughout the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and in particular in the semi-final where McCullum showed humility and exemplary sportsmanship by inviting de Villiers and his side to the New Zealand’s dressing room after a closely-fought match.

McCullum said: “The team has loved how the New Zealand public and cricket fans from around the world have responded to the way we’ve played our cricket in the last 12 months.

Richard Kettleborough of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires has won his third successive David Shepherd Trophy for the ICC Umpire of the Year. He is the third umpire to a complete a hat-trick of titles after Simon Taufel (2004 to 2008) and Aleem Dar (2009-2011).

The player awards were judged by a voting academy, which was entirely independent of the ICC. The voting period ran from 18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015:

The full list of ICC Award 2015 winners is:

ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) - Steve Smith (Australia)

ICC Test Cricketer of the Year – Steve Smith (Australia)

ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year – AB de Villiers (South Africa)

ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year – Meg Lanning (Australia)

ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year – Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)

ICC T20I Performance of the Year – Faf du Plessis (South Africa) (119, 56 balls, 11x4, 5x6 – 2nd T20I vs West Indies,11 January 2015, Johannesburg)

ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year – Josh Hazlewood (Australia)

ICC Associate/Affiliate Cricketer of the Year – Khurram Khan (UAE)

ICC Spirit of Cricket Award – Brendon McCullum (New Zealand)

ICC Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy) – Richard Kettleborough