New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has been awarded the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for a record fourth time at the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) virtual awards ceremony for the 2020-21 season on Tuesday (April 13).
Having won New Zealand Cricket’s supreme individual award in 2016, 2017, and 2019, Williamson became the first four-time winner of the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal for men’s player of the year since the inception of the award by NZC back in 2011.
He was also named the International Test Player of the Year and awarded the Redpath Cup for his stunning show in the red-ball game after he amassed 639 runs in just four innings at an average of 159 – which helped New Zealand to book a place in the ICC World Test Championship Final against India.
Kane, one of the world’s best batsmen, was given the award for his amazing batting show in Test cricket during the summer – where New Zealand won 17 out of 20 Tests and claimed all seven series – scoring a career-best knock of 251 against the West Indies in Hamilton followed by a century on his home ground in Tauranga in the Boxing Day Test and then another masterstroke 238 against Pakistan in Christchurch.
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The NZC also shared a clip on its official Twitter handle, which is showing the congratulatory call made by Hadlee to Williamson at Bay Oval in Tauranga before he departed for India to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In the video, Hadlee asked Williamson: “It’s the fourth time now, so have you got space somewhere in the trophy cabinet, or wherever you put these medals?” to which the Kiwi skipper replied with a smile: “There’s no trophy cabinet at my house, but I’m privileged to receive that.”
On being asked to single out his favorite innings of the summer, he said: “Going into the test summer there was that [World Test] Championship final carrot, and there was a real drive for the guys, although it seemed a long way off and winning four test matches before you’d started one was a pretty lofty goal.”
Williamson signed off by saying, “To spend some time at the crease, personally, and make contributions towards that, it is hard to pinpoint one but certainly pretty proud as a leader in the side that we were able to achieve some of those things and we’re looking forward to that final.”
Noteworthy, Devon Conway was named ODI and T20I Player of the Year at the NZC Awards 2020-21 for his brilliant batting performance this summer.
On the other hand, the 6'8" fast bowler Kyle Jamieson won the 'Winsor Cup for first-class bowling' and Finn Allen won the Super Smash Player of the Year for scoring 512 runs.
In the Women’s category, Amelia Kerr won the Super Smash and International T20 Player of the Year, while the captain Amy Satterthwaite was awarded the Women's ODI Player of the Year.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
