Taylor, Bates sweep New Zealand awards night

Ross Taylor has walked away the big winner from the New Zealand awards night in Auckland. He was awarded the Richard Hadlee medal for 2012-13 and 2013-14 - the award recognised performances over both seasons. Women's captain Suzie Bates also won the women's international payer of the year for both seasons.

Taylor was also named the Test Player of the Year, the ODI Player of the Year and picked up the Redpatch Cup for first-class batting. Fast bowler Tim Southee was given the Winsor Cup for first-class bowling.

Taylor has been in fabulous form of late, scoring three consecutive Test hundreds against West Indies last December and following it with two fifties and two hundreds in the ODIs against India.

"Ross showed with those three centuries against the Windies that he is well on the way to being our greatest-ever batsman," NZC chief executive David White said. "And essentially it set the tone for the summer which ended brilliantly with Test and one day-series victories over one of the best sides in the world - India."

Left-arm quick Mitchell McClenaghan won the Twenty20 Player-of-the-Year title for this season. A special presentation was made in honour of Brendon McCullum, to recognise the 302 he scored against India in Wellington - the highest Test score by a New Zealand batsman.