Awards galore for Rabada

Kagiso Rabada and Dane van Niekerk were recognised in the company of the country’s cricketing elite when they were both named South African Cricketer of the Year in their respective categories at the Cricket South Africa (CSA) awards in Sandton on Saturday evening.

Rabada and Eastern Province’s Van Niekerk had both been previously named South African Men’s Cricketer of the Year and South African Women’s Cricketer of the Year respectively in 2016.

It was a six-star evening for Rabada, who won no fewer than six awards and he has now done it both in 2016 and this year.

No other cricketer has ever won more than five awards.

In addition to the main award, Rabada was named Standard Bank Test Cricketer of the Year and Standard Bank ODI Cricketer of the Year, was honoured by his peers by being named SA Players’ Player of the Year and by the fans on being named SA Fans Player of the Year.

He also won the award for the RAM Delivery of the Year for dismissing David Warner in the third Sunfoil test match against Australia at Newlands in March.

It has been a remarkable year for Rabada, who rose to the No 1 ranking in the world in test cricket and is the leading wicket-taker in the 2018 calendar year with 38 dismissals at an average of 19.65.

He is also ranked No 7 in ODI cricket and was named in the ICC Test XI for the 2017 calendar year.
The only awards he did not win for which he was eligible were the Standard Bank T20 International Player of the Year award that went to AB de Villiers and the KFC Colonel’s Always Original Award that went to David Miller for his world-record T20 International century against Bangladesh.

The International Newcomer of the Year award went to Aiden Markram, who scored exactly 1 000 runs in his debut test season at an average of 55.55 and also stood in as ODI captain at the tender age of 23.

Van Niekerk also had a stellar year, which saw her as the No 2 allrounder in women’s international cricket and the No 9 bowler.

She achieved a historic milestone at the ICC Women’s World Cup when she returned the stunning figures of 4/0 against the West Indies and led the Proteas to their best-ever performance at this tournament when they lost by the narrowest of margins in the semifinals to eventual champions England.

There were two awards for the Warriors, with Simon Harmer being named Sunfoil Series Cricketer of the Year and Jon-Jon Smuts the Saca Most Valuable Player award.

Shaun George was named CSA Umpire of the Year for the second year in a row.

In the CSA Amateur Awards held on Saturday morning, Eastern Province’s Eunice Gonyela was named KFC Mini-Cricket Coach of the Year, while Warriors and Eastern Province batsman Matthew Breetzke won the Coca-Cola U19 Cricketer of the Year award.

The professional award winners were: National SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Dane van Niekerk Test Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada ODI Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada T20 International Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers SA Players’ Player of the Year: Kagiso Rabada SA Fans’ Player of the Year: Kagiso Rabada Always Original Award: David Miller RAM Delivery of the Year: Kagiso Rabada International Newcomer of the Year: Aiden Markram SA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year: Laura Wolvaardt Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year: Laura Wolvaardt Women’s T20 Cricketer of the Year: Chloe Tryon Domestic Sunfoil Series Cricketer of the Season: Simon Harmer (Warriors) One-Day Cup Cricketer of the Season: Tabraiz Shamsi (Titans) RAM SLAM T20 Challenge Player of the Season: Tabraiz Shamsi (Titans) Coach of the Year: Mark Boucher (Titans) Domestic Players’ Player of the Season: Pieter Malan (Cobras) Domestic Newcomer of the Year: Kyle Verreynne (WSB Cape Cobras) Africa T20 Cup Player of the Tournament: Sarel Erwee (KZN Inland) , SACA Most Valuable Player Award: Jon-Jon Smuts (Warriors) Operations CSA Umpires’ Umpire of the Year: Adrian Holdstock CSA Umpire of the Year: Shaun George Affiliate of the Year: Northerns Cricket Union Groundsman of the Year: Evan Flint (Newlands)