Andrew Flintoff named ODI Player of the Year at ICC Awards
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff confirmed his value as today's leading one-day international player after being named ODI Player of the Year at the ICC Awards in London this evening.
Flintoff capped a remarkable 12 months with the bat and ball by taking honours in the ODI award category from an impressive field of nominees.
The ICC Awards, presented by Hyundai in association with FICA, recognise the game's most outstanding players of the past 12 months.
Accepting his award, Flintoff said: "My cricket over the past 18 months has had a massive turnaround. I'm going through a purple patch - not just in my cricket, but in my life."
ICC President Ehsan Mani said: "Andrew Flintoff has certainly had a tremendous year in 2003-04 and we congratulate him on winning this award, as One-Day International Player of the Year."
The 26-year-old polled 58 votes to win the award from India's Sachin Tendulkar (47) and Australian pair Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist who finished equal third with 36 votes.
Flintoff captured 12 ODI wickets from 12 matches in the year-long voting period (1 August 2003 to 31 July 2004), at an average of 20.50.
His most prolific performance with the ball in this period came against Bangladesh at Chittagong when he took a career best 4-14 in a devastating spell of 9.4 overs.
With the bat, Flintoff was even more damaging over the past 12 months.
He scored 551 runs in the 12 ODI matches at an average of 78.71 - the highest average in the group of ODI Player of the Year nominees. His top score of 123 of 104 balls came only recently, against the West Indies at Lord's in July.
The nominees for the ODI Player of the Year award included a strong field of 17 players.
Voting for the ODI Player of the Year was completed by the 50-member ICC Awards voting Academy, who cast a 3-2-1 vote (3 votes being the greater value) from the list of nominees, with the votes tallied to produce a winner.
The voting Academy included the 10 ICC Full Member captains, the Emirates Elite Panel of eight ICC Umpires, seven members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees (the eighth member did not officiate in the voting period), and a combination of 25 former legends and respected members of the media.