The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced its year-end awards and India’s U19 World Cup win in January of 2018 was voted the Fans’ Moment of the year with 48% votes.
Indian U19 side went undefeated in the competition and faced Australia in the finals. India chased down 216 in style with Manjot Kalra hitting 101* and captain Prithvi Shaw lifting the trophy, giving India its fourth U19 World Cup victory.
Afghanistan’s miraculous comeback in the ICC 2019 World Cup qualifiers came in second in the voting for the fans’ moment award.
Another major recipient of the award was Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who got the Emerging Player of the Year award. He scored 537 runs with a century and two fifties in eight Tests during the voting period with 40 catches and two stumpings. In three ODIs, he scored 41 runs and took three catches and in eight T20Is scored 114 runs and pouched two catches.
Aaron Finch, own the T20I performance of the year award for his world record 172 against Zimbabwe in Harare. Finch broke his own record of 156 and hit 10 sixes and 16 fours, a total of 26 boundaries, another world record, in a whirlwind innings.
Aaron Finch, remembering the knock, said: “It was just one of those days that things seemed to go my way, so it was nice to break my own record and get a 172. After I got a hundred and I started to middle consistently, that is when I knew it was going to be a big one. It all happened pretty quick.”
Calum Macleod from Scotland won the ICC Associate Player of the Year, for his brilliant knocks of 157* against Afghanistan in the World Cup Qualifiers and 140 against England, which handed Scotland their maiden ODI win over their neighbors.
MacLeod said: “It is a huge honour to win the ICC Associate Player of the Year award. It has been a really special year for me personally. I thank the ICC, Cricket Scotland, my team-mates and all the fans to making it a year I won’t forget.”
The Spirit of Cricket Award went to Kane Williamson, the Kiwi captain for his continued commitment to playing the game in the right spirit and as a role model to the whole sport.
Williamson said: “We are all ambassadors of this game, so playing in the right spirit, those sorts of characteristics are really important even at the highest level. It is a nice award. It is important for us as a group that we keep looking to do better in all areas, and one of those areas is to continue playing the game in the right way, as how we see it being right.”
Umpire of the Year went to Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena and he won the David Shepherd Trophy for the second time.
Dharmasena said, “It has been a very satisfying year for me and this award from the ICC is a great honour and privilege. This comes six years after I was first named for the award and will inspire me to keep doing the job I love so much. I have always been passionate about cricket, both as a player and an umpire and look forward to keep working hard and challenging myself in order to meet the demands of this great game.”
The voting academy:
Javed Hamid Kakar, Emal Pasarly (Afghanistan); Lisa Sthalekar, Andrew Wu, Mike Hussey (Australia) Utpal Shuvro, M. Farid Ahmed, Athar Ali Khan (Bangladesh); Julian Guyer, Lawrence Booth, Nasser Hussain (England); Deep Dasgupta, Sunandan Lele, Jasvinder Sidhu (India); Ian Callendar, Barry Chambers (Ireland); Mark Geenty, Ian Smith (New Zealand); Peter Borren (Netherlands); Ramiz Raja, Abdul Mohi Shah, Mazhar Arshad, Bazid Khan (Pakistan); Shaun Pollock, Neil Manthorp, Firdose Moonda (South Africa); Saroj Pathirana, Russel Arnold, Rex Clementine (Sri Lanka); Peter Della Penna (USA), Ian Bishop, Barry Wilkinson, Vinode Mamchan (West Indies); Trisan Holme, Mehluli Sibanda, Mpumelelo Mbangwa (Zimbabwe).
(inputs from icc-cricket.com)
