Markram, Ngidi among SA Cricket Annual's Cricketers of the Year

Aiden Markram and Lungi Ngidi are among the five Cricketers of the Year named in the 2018 South African Cricket Annual published on Thursday.

Markram scored 1000 runs at an average of 55.55 in his first season of Test cricket, including four hundreds and a top score of 152 in the 492-run victory over Australia in March - the biggest Test win, in terms of runs, by any team since 1934. Markram is also South Africa's leading Test run-scorer in the last year.

Fast bowler Ngidi made a sensational start to his Test career by taking 6 for 39 on debut against India. He is also South Africa's leading wicket-taker in ODIs this year, with 26 dismissals at 23.03.

The other three players named in the 2018 annual are Titans and South Africa fast bowler Junior Dala, who was picked up by Delhi Daredevils in this year's IPL, Warriors captain and allrounder Jon Jon Smuts and Lions batsman Rassie van der Dussen, who made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe in October.

The South African Cricket Annual, edited by veteran journalist Colin Bryden, is a local equivalent of England's famed Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Unlike the official Cricket South Africa awards, a player can only be honoured once as a South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year.

The 680-page 2018 edition covers one of the most eventful periods in South Africa's cricketing history, with a home season which featured ten Test matches, including series wins against India and Australia. The annual also includes detailed coverage of all South Africa women's matches last season. Feature articles include an examination of the state of pitches in the country and a full account of the controversies which marked the series against Australia.

There are also tributes to AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel to mark their retirements from international cricket, with the article on de Villiers tracing his career highlights from the age of 12, when he first shone in a national Under-13 Week. A detailed statistical section is compiled by Andrew Samson, Cricket South Africa's world-renowned official statistician.

A comprehensive Obituaries section recalls the lives of a range of cricketing personalities, who died during the past year, including Test stars Colin Bland and Clive van Ryneveld and the allrounder Sulaiman 'Dik' Abed, who left apartheid South Africa and became a legend in England's Lancashire League.