De Villiers rakes in four CSA awards

[Gill Saab]

AB de Villiers missed out on being appointed South Africa's Test captain but received some consolation by scooping four awards at CSA's annual prize-giving on Wednesday. De Villiers was named cricketer of the year, Test cricketer of the year, players' player and fans' player of the year, ahead of new Test captain Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis.

The only award de Villiers was nominated for which he did not win was the ODI cricketer of the year, which went to Quinton de Kock, who matched a record of de Villiers' to take the title. Although de Villiers was the leading run-scorer for South Africa in the 2013-14 season, de Kock scored 609 runs at an average of 67.66, with four centuries of which three were in successive matches against India. De Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs are the only other South Africans to have achieved that feat, alongside Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar.

De Villiers' numbers were enough to earn him every other major award on the night. He was South Africa's stand-out Test performer across the series against India and Australia, scoring 804 runs at 67.00 with three hundreds, including a match-saving one against India at Wanderers, and remains the No.1 ranked Test batsman. Combined with his wicketkeeping in the longest format and captaining in ODIs, de Villiers' popularity has soared among his compatriots and countrymen and his list of awards attested to that.

Imran Tahir was recognised for his contributions in the T20 format, where he took 18 wickets in nine matches at an average of 11.00. The legspinner was the joint leading wicket-taker at the 2014 World T20, in which South Africa were knocked out in the semifinal. Individual awards were given to Jacques Kallis for his century in his final Test against India, and Dale Steyn for the inswinger that beat Brad Haddin and flattened his middle stump in the second Test against Australia in Port Elizabeth in March.

At domestic level, Cobras captain Justin Ontong was named first-class cricketer of the year. He finished second on the run-scorers' list, five behind team-mate Stiaan van Zyl, and led the Cobras to the title. Titans' opener Heino Kuhn was the one-day cup player of the season after topping the batting with 470 runs in 11 matches at 47.00, including two hundreds. Dolphins middle-order batsman David Miller was named twenty-over player of the season. Miller scored 383 runs in 12 matches with a high score of 93 not out and a strike rate of 153.2 in a tournament Dolphins won.

The Durban-based franchise dominated the rest of the awards. They won the fair play award and their coach, Lance Klusener, was named coach of the year for overseeing their first non-shared trophy in over a decade. They previously shared the first-class title on two occasions. Kyle Abbott, who was third on the one-day cup wicket list and second on the twenty-over charts, was named domestic players' player of the year and the South African Cricketers Associations' most valuable player.

The Kingsmead groundsman, Wilson Ngobese was awarded groundsman of the year. South Africa won a Test in Durban for the time in five seasons against India in December, after losing there to Australia, India and Sri Lanka between 2009 and 2013.


Full list of awards
Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers
Test Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers
ODI Cricketer of the Year: Quinton de Kock
T20 Cricketer of the Year: Imran Tahir
Players' Player of the Year: AB de Villiers
Fans' Player of the Year: AB de Villiers
KFC 'So Good' Award: Jacques Kallis for his century v India in his final Test.
RAM Delivery of the Year: Dale Steyn to Brad Haddin in the second Test v Australia at St George's Park
Women's Cricketer of the Year: Marizanne Kapp
First-class cricketer of the Season: Justin Ontong
One-Day Cup Cricketer of the Season: Heino Kuhn
T20 Player of the Season: David Miller
Coach of the Year: Lance Klusener
Domestic Players' Player of the Season: Kyle Abbott
CSA Fair Play Award: Dolphins
SACA Most Valuable Player Award: Kyle Abbott
Groundsman of the Year: Wilson Ngobese (Kingsmead)

 

[[JUGRAJ SINGH]]

South African middle order mainstay, AB de Villiers dominated the South African awards night on Wednesday, grabbing as many as four awards, including the coveted South African 'Cricketer of the year 2014'.

de Villiers was also named as the 'Test cricketer of the year', was voted by his peers as SA players' Player of the year and also by popular vote of the public SA fans' Cricketer of the year.

de Villiers was nominated in as many as five categories, and the only award he missed was the 'ODI player of the year' which went to young left-handed batsman, Quinton de Kock. The southpaw had hit 4 centuries in the calendar year, including three consecutive tons against India last December.

Leg-spinner Imran Tahir was named as the 'International T20 player of the year', paceman Dale Steyn won the 'Delivery of the year' (Brad Haddin was clean bowled during the 2nd Test against Australia at Port Elizabeth) and Jacques Kallis won the KFC 'So Good' award for finishing his Test career with a century.

Marizanne Kapp was named Momentum Women's Cricketer of the Year for the second successive year

"This has been another great year of wonderful achievements for our top players", said CSA Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.

"ABs statistics are sheer class and speak for themselves. He is the world's best batsman, ranked No. 1 in Test match cricket and No.2 in ODI cricket. His highest rating of 935 points in Test cricket is the joint 10th highest of all time alongside Jacques Kallis and Matthew Hayden.

"But that only tells a part of his amazing skills. He has always been an entertainer and innovator par excellence while at the same time he has the ability to dig really deep in pressure situations.

"We all saw his strength of character illustrated against Australia at Adelaide in 2012 and again against India at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium last season.

"We are proud of the scale of his achievements and, more importantly, the manner in which he does it. He is an exceptionally talented cricketer who always adapts to the needs of the team," he added.

In the domestic category, Durban based franchise Dolphins swept almost every award. Their coach, Lance Klusener was named as the 'coach of the year.' Star Player, David Miller was named as the 'T20 player of the year' while pacer Kyle Abbot grabbed the domestic players' Player of the year award as well as the SACA Most Valuable player.

In addition, Dolphins also won the fair play award while Wilson Ngobese, the head groundsman of Kingsmead, Durban won the best curator award.

Justin Ontong of Cape Cobras was named the Sunfoil series 'Cricketer of the season' while Heino Kuhn of Titans was named the One Day Cup Cricketer of the season.

The Kyaya Majola lifetime achievement award went to Abe Williams for his services to the game over the past five decades.

This is the first time AB is winning the SA 'Cricketer of the year award'. Previous winners include Jacques Kallis (2004 and 2011), Makhaya Ntini (2005 and 2006), Shaun Pollock (2007), Dale Steyn (2008), Graeme Smith (2009), Hashim Amla (2010 and 2013) and Vernon Philander (2012).

AWARD WINNERS

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: NATIONAL

SA Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers


Castle Lager Test Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers

Castle Lager ODI Cricketer of the Year: Quinton de Kock

Blue Label Telecoms T20 International Cricketer of the Year: Imran Tahir

SA Players Player of the Year: AB de Villiers

SA Fans Player of the Year: AB de Villiers

KFC So Good Award: Jacques Kallis (century v India in his final Test at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead)

RAM Delivery of the Year: Dale Steyn (bowled Brad Haddin, second Test match against Australia at Port Elizabeth).

Momentum womens Cricketer of the Year: Marizanne Kapp

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: DOMESTIC

Sunfoil Series Cricketer of the Season: Justin Ontong (Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras)


Momentum One-Day Cup Cricketer of the Season: Heino Kuhn (The Unlimited Titans)

RAM SLAMMER of the Season: David Miller (Sunfoil Dolphins)

Coach of the Year: Lance Klusener (Sunfoil Dolphins)

Domestic Players Player of the Season: Kyle Abbott (Sunfoil Dolphins)

CSA Fair Play Award: Sunfoil Dolphins

SACA Most Valuable Player Award: Kyle Abbott (Sunfoil Dolphins)

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS: OPERATIONS

CSA Groundsman of the Year: Wilson Ngobese (Sahara Stadium Kingsmead)

CSA Scorers Association of the Year: Gauteng Cricket Board

CSA Umpires Umpire of the Year: Shaun George

CSA Umpire of the Year: Johan Cloete