Quinton de Kock, Laura Wolvaardt claim top honours in CSA Awards 2020
Quinton de Kock and Laura Wolvaardt received the highest accolades that Cricket South Africa (CSA) has to offer when they were named South Africa Men’s and Women’s Cricketer of the Year, respectively, at CSA’s awards ceremony that was held virtually on Saturday evening.
Quinton de Kock became only the sixth cricketer to have won the prestigious award twice. Other players to have won the award twice are Makhaya Ntini, Kagiso Rabada, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, and Jacques Kallis. Quinton de Kock was also named Standard Bank test Cricketer of the Year and was honoured by his peers as South Africa Men’s Players’ Player of the Year.
Along with Quinton de Kock, Wolvaardt won the top honours in the women's category. Wolvaardt becomes the youngest winner of South Africa’s top women’s award at the age of 21 years and two months with Sune Luus being just two months older when she won the award in 2017.
Speedster Lungi Ngidi was named both Standard Bank Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year and Standard Bank Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year while pace sensation Anrich Nortje was named Men’s International Newcomer of the year. Nortje also bagged the RAM Delivery of the Year award for his dismissal of David Warner in the third ODI, when Australia toured SA.
The other top award in the women’s category went to Shabnim Ismail who was once again named as the Momentum Proteas T20I Player of the Year while 19-year-old Nonkululeku Mlaba was named as the International Women’s Newcomer of the Year.
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CSA Executive heaps praise on Quinton de Kock and Laura Wolvaardt
CSA Chief Executivs, Dr. Jacques Faul heaped praise on both Quinton de Kock and Laura Wolvaardt after they received the top honours. He also applauded Quinton de Kock for leading the team successfully.
“Quinny and Laura have set the highest standards that we expect from our icon Proteas players,” commented CSA Acting Chief Executive, Dr. Jacques Faul. “Quinny is the leading wicketkeeper-batsman in test cricket and is, in fact, one of the leading batsmen in both red ball and white ball cricket. He is also starting to emerge as an outstanding leader as witnessed by the Proteas clean sweep of Australia in their recent ODI series."
Faul also praised Wolvaardt for being part of the tournament XI at the end of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
“Laura was named in the tournament select XI at the conclusion of the ICC Women’s World T20 which tells us a great deal about the esteem in which she is held at international level. At the age of 21 her best years are ahead of her and she will be a key player when the Momentum Proteas go to the ICC Women’s World Cup next year.
Domestic Awards
At domestic level, talented left-arm spinner George Linde, who made his Test debut in India, was awarded the four-day cricketer of the year title. Linde was also voted the franchise system's Most Valuable Player.
Emerging batsman Grant Roelofsen was named one-day player of the year and was also the domestic players' player of the year while Tabraiz Shamsi, who bowled the Paarl Rocks to the Mzansi Super League (MSL) title, was named the tournament's impact player. Janneman Malan, the highest local run-scorer at the MSL, was the competition's noteworthy young player of the year.