Anrich Nortje, Shabnim Ismail claim top honours at CSA awards

Quicks Anrich Nortje and Shabnim Ismail were named South Africa's men's and women's cricketer of the year respectively at the Cricket South Africa (CSA) awards that were held in Midrand on Friday. The pair had previously won big at the CSA awards in 2021. In all, this was the third time that Ismail had taken top honours.

The recently-retired Ismail had picked up eight wickets in six matches at an economy rate of 5.86 in South Africa's run to a home T20 World Cup final in February. Nortje has been a strike force for South Africa across formats while his partner-in-crime Kagiso Rabada was named men's Test cricketer of the year. Temba Bavuma scooped up the men's ODI player of the year award while the men's T20I award went to Reeza Hendricks who had struck back-to-back half-centuries against West Indies at home in March.

Nonkululeko Mlaba was named women's T20I player of the year while Laura Wolvaardt claimed the women's ODI player of the year award. Mlaba, 23, often fronts up to bowl in the powerplay in T20Is and in the home T20 World Cup earlier this year, she came away with six wickets in as many games at an average of 24.16 and a strike rate of 6.59.

The MLC-bound Gerald Coetzee was adjudged men's newcomer of the year. Coetzee had made both his Test and ODI debuts in March this year. In only his second Test, the 22-year-old fast bowler bagged a match haul of six wickets to cap South Africa's home Test summer and their World Test Championship (WTC) cycle with a 284-run victory over West Indies in Johannesburg. Coetzee was also Faf du Plessis' go-to bowler at Joburg Super Kings during the inaugural SA20 earlier this year.

"On behalf of Cricket South Africa, I would like to congratulate all the winners on their awards," Chief Executive Officer Pholetsi Moseki said. "There were so many strong performances and outstanding candidates for awards over the past season; it really made the task of the judges exceptionally tough.

"We have seen a real improvement of all our national teams over the past season, the proof of which are in the results."

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: NATIONAL

SA Women's Player of the Year: Shabnim Ismail
Women's T20I Player of the Year: Nonkululeko Mlaba
Women's ODI Player of the Year: Laura Wolvaardt
Women's Players' Player of the Year: Nonkululeko Mlaba
SA Men's Player of the Year: Anrich Nortje
Test Player of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
ODI Player of the Year: Temba Bavuma
T20I Cricketer of the Year: Reeza Hendricks
International Men's Newcomer of the Year: Gerald Coetzee
SA Men Players' Player of the Year: David Miller
SA Fans' Player of the Year: Sinalo Jafta
Best Delivery Fuelled by KFC: Kagiso Rabada