International Cricket Council (ICC) has just unveiled the winners of their annual awards on Twitter that would felicitate the best players across all the formats who dominated the game of cricket. Indian skipper Virat Kohli was given the 2019 Spirit of Cricket Award for showing amazing sportsmanship in the game.
The accolade was given to Kohli because of his amazing gesture towards Steve Smith in a game against Australia during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. The Australian middle-order batsman was making a return to the international circuit after a one-year ban and the spectators refused to welcome him graciously. This is when he looked at them and asked them to applaud for the Aussie batsman.
With India fans giving Steve Smith a tough time fielding in the deep, @imVkohli suggested they applaud the Australian instead.
Absolute class đź‘Ź #SpiritOfCricket #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/mmkLoedxjr
— ICC (@ICC) June 9, 2019
The Indian skipper was appreciated for this gesture on social media at that time.
Among other winners, England’s Ben Stokes was named ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year for playing some of his career’s best knocks last year. He scored 821 runs in Test format at an average of 46 and played one of the greatest innings of all time in the third Test of the Ashes, last year.
Meanwhile, in ODIs, he accumulated 719 runs in 2019 at an average of 59 and played a swashbuckling knock in the finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup.
On the other hand, Pat Cummins was awarded the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year for taking 59 wickets in the calendar year. He was the only bowler to bowl 100+ maidens last year (119 maidens). Cummins has been a revelation for Australian in recent times and whenever they are in a problematic situation, he surely knows how to take them out that.
Another Australian player who was awarded is none other than Marnus Labuschagne. Labuschagne, who came to the Australian team as a concussion substitute in the 2019 Ashes, was named the ICC Men’s Emerging Player of the Year. The batsman scored 1104 runs in 11 Tests at an average of 64.94 with three centuries and seven half-centuries to his name. Due to his amazing form, Labuschagne has also been chosen to represent the Kangaroos in the colored outfit.
When it comes to the Teams of the Year, Virat Kohli has been named the skipper of both teams, Test and ODI. ODI team includes the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, and Mohammed Shami. Meanwhile, the Test side is loaded with Aussie cricketers. 5 Australian players have made cut, including Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon. Â
India’s newest batting-sensation Mayank Agarwal also finds a place in the Test team.
The full list of recipients of ICC Awards:
Cricketer Of The Year – Ben Stokes (England)
Test Cricketer Of The Year – Pat Cummins (Australia)
ODI Cricketer Of The Year – Rohit Sharma (India)
Spirit Of Cricket Awards – Virat Kohli (India)
Associate Player Of The Year – Kyle Coetzer (Scotland)
Umpire Of The Year – Richard Illingworth
T20I Performance Of The Year – Deepak Chahar (6/7 vs Bangladesh)
ICC ODI Team Of The Year
Rohit Sharma
Shai Hope
Virat Kohli ( c )
Babar Azam
Kane Williamson
Ben Stokes
Jos Buttler
Mitchell Starc
Trent Boult
Mohammed Shami
Kuldeep Yadav
ICC Test Team Of The Year
Mayank Agarwal
Tom Latham
Marnus Labuschagne
Virat Kohli ( c )
Steve Smith
Ben Stokes
BJ Watling
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Neil Wagner
Nathan Lyon
