Wolvaardt, Jansen win big at CSA annual awards

Laura Wolvaardt, South Africa's women's captain, was the big winner at the CSA annual awards, where she picked up five prizes including Women's Player of the Year following a stellar 2023-24 season. Not only did Wolvaardt accept the leadership role permanently in the past season, she was also South Africa's leading run-scorer in ODIs and T20Is in the period under consideration.

Fittingly, she was named the Women's ODI Player of the Year and Women's T20I Player of the Year. Her popularity among her team-mates and supporters was clear as she also took home the Players' Player of the Year and Fans' Player of the Year awards.

She was joined by Marco Jansen, who was named as the Men's Player of the Year in recognition of his all-round contributions which included 17 wickets at the ODI World Cup and impressive performances with bat and ball in the Boxing Day Test against India.

The awards recognise achievements from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024, so performances at June's Men's T20 World Cup and in Test and T20I series in West Indies will be considered only at next year's events. The reason for the awards being held in September rather than immediately after the season in May is because CSA's sponsors require all nationally contracted players to appear at the ceremony and that would not be possible in May because of the IPL.

South Africa only played four Tests in the period under consideration - two against India and two with a second-string side in New Zealand - which made choosing a Test player of the Year tough. David Bedingham, who scored 56 on debut against India and 87 and 110 in his two second innings in New Zealand, was recognised for his efforts. Bedingham was also named the International Newcomer of the Year.

In white-ball formats, Quinton de Kock, who has now retired from 50-over cricket, was named the ODI Player of the Year after his four centuries at the 2023 World Cup. Reeza Hendricks, meanwhile, won the T20I Player of the Year award. Hendricks was the only South African batter to score a half-century in the period under consideration which excludes the T20 World Cup. Keshav Maharaj, the left-arm spinner who defied medical odds to make his comeback three months early from an Achilles rupture and play at the ODI World Cup, was voted by his peers as the Players' Player of the Year.

Two other marquee awards were won by female internationals: the Best Delivery Fuelled by KFC and Makhaya Ntini Power of Cricket Award. Marizanne Kapp's inswinger that bowled Beth Mooney in South Africa's first ODI win over Australia was judged the best ball in the season while Masabata Klaas was acknowledged for overcoming the odds to carve a career in cricket. The Makhaya Ntini award, which is in its third year, seeks to recognise players who, like Ntini, have risen above tough circumstances and this is the first time the award has been won by a female cricketer.

Klaas had her daughter Rethabile in 2013, just before South Africa's women's cricket professionalised, and she has been a single mother though her career. She took three years out of the game but with the support of her own mother, Paulinah, was able to return to cricket and played a key role in South Africa's automatic qualification to the 2021 50-over World Cup. She became the 10th women's bowler to take a hat-trick, doing it against Pakistan in 2019. She is seventh on South Africa's all-time ODI wicket-takers' list and sixth in T20Is. Earlier this year, she spoke to ESPNcricnfo's Powerplay podcast about her journey in the game and how she has taken on a mentoring role in the women's side. Klaas and other cricketing mothers were also on the most recent episode of Powerplay.

On the domestic front, legspinner Nqabayomzi Peter who bowled the Lions to victory in the CSA T20 Cup and made his international debut in June was named the men's Domestic Newcomer of the Season and T20 Challenge Player of the Season. Lions' allrounder Wiaan Mulder, who was the third-highest run-scorer and took 16 wickets in division one of the four-day division one first-class competition was named four-day domestic Player of the Season. Western Province allrounder Mihlali Mpongwana, the joint second-highest wicket-taker in the one-day cup, won the one-day Domestic Player of the Season award. In the women's domestic competition, left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba was named women's one-day Player of the Season, while Tazmin Brits won the women's T20 Player of the Season award after finishing as the leading run-scorer in the domestic tournament, with three centuries.