Angelo Mathews bags Sri Lankan Cricketer of the Year award
Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews has capped off his tremendous last 12 months in both Test and ODI cricket with the Cricketer of the Year award at the Sri Lanka cricket awards. In addition to that, Mathews also took home the ODI Batsman & ODI Allrounder prizes and shared the Test Batsman award with Kumar Sangakkara.
Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who took 60 wickets from 10 Tests in the qualifying period, deservedly got the Best Test Bowler award for the third year in a row.
Lasith Malinga, who captained Sri Lanka to their inaugural ICC World T20 title, was rated as the Best Bowler in both the ODI and T20 category. Thisara Perera and Kusal Perera were also recognised for their contributions in the shortest format of the game as they were awarded Best T20 All-rounder and Batsman awards respectively.
Wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella has made rapid progress as a cricketer in the last 6 months or so and was fast tracked into the Test team recently, making his Test debut against South Africa. Expectedly, Dickwella was awarded the Emerging Player of the Year award. In his 3 Tests so far, he has already taken 12 catches and effected a couple of stumpings, not to forget his impressive 72 on debut.
Mathews’ being awarded most of the top prizes up for grabs isn’t much of a surprise when you consider the number of defining innings he has played in all formats of the game in recent months. Apart from his innings of 40 off just 23 balls in the World T20 semi-final against West Indies, He has amassed 1292 Test runs at an average of 92.28 and 965 ODI runs at 53.61 in the last one year, with his match winning 160 in the 2nd Test against England at Headingley undoubtedly being the highlight.
Sangakkara, meanwhile, apart from being the joint winner of the Test Batsman award, also won the People’s Choice Award, who was voted on online and through text messages, for the 5th consecutive time. Sangakkara has been remarkably consistent for the last 4-5 years and continued his good form with the bat over the last 12 months, scoring 1502 runs at an average of 75.10 in Test cricket.
As far as Sri Lankan domestic cricket is concerned, Jehan Mubarak won the Best Batsman after scoring 1165 runs at an average of 105.90, while Colts Cricket Club's left-arm wrist-spinner Lakshan Rangika was awarded the Best Bowler.