Maharaj and Mlaba win the big ones at CSA annual awards

Left-arm spinners Keshav Maharaj and Nonkululeko Mlaba were named South Africa's men's and women's players of the year, respectively, at the annual CSA awards for the 2024-25 season.

The judging period takes into account last year's T20 World Cups (both men and women) - South Africa reached the final in both tournaments - the home summer and the 2025 Champions Trophy, but not the World Test Championship final, which South Africa won.

That means performances like Aiden Markram's mace-winning century and Kagiso Rabada's Lord's nine-for will be considered next year. Rabada, though, was named men's player of the year by his peers.

Both Maharaj and Mlaba starred across the Test and T20I formats, which was South Africa's focus over the last year.

Maharaj took 40 wickets in seven Tests between August 2024 and January 2025, including twin four-fors against West Indies, and five-wicket hauls in Chattogram and Gqeberha. He was also South Africa's third-highest wicket-taker at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

In the women's game, Mlaba's 12 wickets at the T20 World Cup was the second-highest in the tournament, behind the haul by New Zealand's Amelia Kerr. She also became the only South Africa woman to take ten wickets in a Test match with her haul of 10 for 157 against England in December, and is South Africa's second-highest Test wicket-taker of all time.

Temba Bavuma was named Test player of the year after his two hundreds in the home summer (against Sri Lanka in Durban and against Pakistan in Cape Town) helped South Africa qualify for the WTC final.

Now-retired Heinrich Klaasen was awarded the ODI player of the year for topping the run-charts in the Pakistan series in an otherwise lean 50-over calendar for South Africa, and Anrich Nortje, who was South Africa's leading bowler at the T20 World Cup, won the T20 player of the year award. Ottneil Baartman, South Africa's most economical bowler at the T20 World Cup, was named newcomer of the year.

At the domestic level, Lhuan-dre Pretorius' three hundreds in five matches, including his match-saving century in the first-class final, trumped leading run-scorer Jordan Hermann, while Jon Jon Smuts' one-day form earned him that award.

Kwena Maphaka, who was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the CSA T20 Challenge, scooped up the T20 player of the season award, and Dewald Brevis, who was the third-highest first-class run-scorer and second-highest scorer in the one day cup, was the domestic players' player of the year.

Among the coaches, former South Africa and current Lions' coach Russell Domingo was named division one coach of the year after his team won both the four-day and T20 competitions, while Ahmed Amla, who oversaw Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland's promotion to division one, won the award for that level.

Mlaba was also the women's players' player of the year, while Annerie Dercksen, who was the ICC's newcomer of 2024, was named women's ODI player of the year. She was the leading run-scorer in the tri-series against India and Sri Lanka in May, where she also scored her first ODI century. Seamer Ayanda Hlubi was named women's newcomer of the year.