Porterfield named Associate Player of the Year

Ireland captain William Porterfield has been named the ICC Associate Player of the Year at the ICC Awards ceremony in Johannesburg.

The voting academy chose Porterfield over other top Associate players including Canada's Rizwan Cheema and the Netherlands duo of Edgar Schiferli and last year's winner of this award Ryan ten Doeschate.

During the 12-month voting period, Porterfield played for Ireland in 11 ODIs making two centuries and two half-centuries. His batting average was 46.80 with a strike rate of 77.10. As captain he also led Ireland to nine victories in those 11 matches.

In the four ICC Intercontinental Cup fixtures played during the voting period, Porterfield averaged 38.14 with the bat, scoring one century and one half-century.

Porterfield, 25, also led Ireland to the Super Eight stage of the ICC World Twenty20 this year and helped it to qualify for the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after winning the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in South Africa in April.

Upon collecting his award in Porterfield said: "It's been a fantastic year for us. This award caps it off on a personal note but it's great for the team to be going to the World Cup having won the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier early this year.

"This award is great for Irish cricket and it shows how much we have done on the field. If we continue onwards and keep on making improvements in that department then other awards will follow."

The Associate Player of the Year Award was one of eight individual prizes given at this year's LG ICC Awards. It was announced by Charlotte Edwards, last year's ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year.

The Associate Player of the Year award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the ICC Full Members.