JOHANNESBURG: Cricket South Africa (CSA) gave due recognition to its leading men’s and women’s players who have kept the flag flying during extremely difficult Covid-19 times with the announcement of the nominations for the annual CSA Awards.
The various winners, including the prestigious SA Men’s and Women’s Player of the Year Awards, will be named during a social media takeover at 19:00 SAST on Monday, 31 May.
It has been a stellar year for the Momentum Proteas who achieved a first ever white ball double over India on the sub-continent and achieved a similar result at home to Pakistan in a restricted programme.
The Proteas men had a mixed bag of results against England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as they entered a new era following the retirement over the last few years of many legends of the game. Not surprisingly, all four nominations for the Men’s Cricketer of the Year – Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram, Anrich Nortje and Rassie van der Dussen – have never won the award before.
The Momentum Proteas paint a picture of much more experience with Shabnim Ismail (2015), Sune Luus (2017) and Laura Wolvaardt (2020) all being previous winners of the SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year award with the fourth member of this nominated quartet being Lizelle Lee, currently ranked No. 1 batter in the world in One-Day International (ODI) cricket.
LEADING MEN’S NOMINATIONS
Anrich Nortje: One-Day International Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, KFC Streetwise Award, CSA Delivery of the Year, SA Fans’ Player of the Year and SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year.
Aiden Markram: T20 International Cricketer of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, KFC Streetwise Award and SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year.
Temba Bavuma: Test Cricketer of the Year and SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year.
Rassie van der Dussen: T20 International Cricketer of the Year, One-Day International Cricketer of the Year and SA Men’s Cricketer of the Year.
In addition, the jury is still out on the SA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year.
LEADING WOMEN’S NOMINATIONS
Shabnim Ismail: Momentum Women’s T20 International Cricketer of the Year, Momentum Women’s One-Day International Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year, KFC Streetwise Award, CSA Delivery of the Year and SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Lizelle Lee: Momentum Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year, KFC Streetwise Award and SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Sune Luus: Momentum Women’s T20 Cricketer of the Year and SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Laura Wolvaardt: Momentum Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Player of the Year and SA Women’s Cricketer of the Year
The Women’s Players’ Player of the Year is still to be decided.
Other Proteas men’s players nominated in the various categories are Tabraiz Shamsi (T20 International Cricketer of the Year), Faf du Plessis (KFC Streetwise Award), David Miller (One-Day International Cricketer of the Year), Janneman Malan (International Newcomer of the Year, T20 International Cricketer of the Year and SA Fans’ Player of the Year), Dean Elgar (Test Cricketer of the Year), George Linde (International Newcomer of the Year, KFC Streetwise Award), Lizaad Williams (International Newcomer of the Year), Andile Phehlukwayo (One-Day International Cricketer of the Year), Kagiso Rabada (SA Fans’ Player of the Year) and Kyle Verreynne (SA Fans’ Player of the Year).
In the women’s category other nominees are Tazmin Brits and Anneke Bosch (both Momentum Women’s T20 International Cricketer of the Year), Marizanne Kapp (Momentum Women’s One-Day International Cricketer of the Year) and Nonkululeku Mlaba (SA Fans’ Player of the Year).
Once again, South Africa’s best men’s and women’s cricketers will be going head-to-head in several of the categories including the CSA Delivery of the Year for which the nominations are Shabnim Ismail, Ayabonga Khaka, Masabata Klaas, Wiaan Mulder, Anrich Nortje and Lutho Sipamla.
“It is my great pleasure and privilege to congratulate all the nominees as we celebrate the achievements of both our Proteas men’s and Momentum Proteas women’s squads,” commented CSA Acting Chief Executive Pholetsi Moseki. “I am also delighted to announce that the Interim Board has approved a new award named after one of our legends: The Makhaya Ntini Power of Cricket award.
“Let us not forget also to thank all those great and selfless people who work diligently behind the scenes to create opportunities for our leading cricketers to excel. It has been a challenging year in the new normal resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and we must also thank our outstanding medical team for making cricket possible at both international and domestic level.
“As not all our first-class venues have been able to stage cricket this year, we have decided not to honour an individual groundsman but rather to celebrate the contributions of all our grounds staff around the country.
“As no player in the women’s section achieved the necessary criteria to be considered for the Women’s International Newcomer of the Year we have thought out of the box to ‘honour’ our Black Day kit which our Momentum Proteas women wore to draw attention to the campaign against the scourge of violence against women and children.”
The CSA Awards Judging Panel consists of: Jeremy Fredericks (Convener), Crystal Arnold, Makhaya Ntini, Clinton du Preez, Lungani Zama and Natalie Germanos with statistical input by Andrew Samson.
“The CSA Awards are one of my personal highlights of the year where we get to sit down and review the performances of the players and relive the big performances from the season. Looking at the nominees this year, they all did excellently to get here,” commented Fredericks.
“Trying to separate them has never been easy and it is no different this time around. With the changing landscape of our national Proteas men’s team, we saw several impressive newcomers stand out and that was very encouraging. There were also the old guard doing their business, but all in all it was good to see a variety of players step up so admirably.
“The Momentum Proteas have now become that well-oiled machine and we saw how they came together as a team so impressively over the summer. Some of the individual performances were also phenomenal leaving the judges in a difficult position when trying to pick the winners.
Fredericks added, “The game we all serve and love is full of incredible stories of perseverance, passion and the overwhelming pride of people who have used their talent to change their circumstances. It is in this spirit that we introduce a new award this year, one that encompasses the virtues of hard work, humility and overcoming all manner of obstacles to achieve through cricket.
“The Makhaya Ntini Power of Cricket Award serves to demonstrate the ability for this game to change lives and communities, just as it did for Proteas bowling legend Makhaya Ntini.”
The winners will be announced next Monday from 19:00 SAST across CSA’s social media platforms: Facebook (Cricket South Africa), Twitter (@OfficialCSA), Instagram (cricket_south_africa) and the CSA App, which can be downloaded on IOS and Android devices via the App Store and Google Play.
SELECTED AWARDS NOMINATIONS
DOMESTIC PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
PITCHVISION COACH OF THE SEASON
Wandile Gwavu (Imperial Lions)
Imraan Khan (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
DOMESTIC NEWCOMER OF THE SEASON
Neil Brand (Momentum Multiply Titans)
Lifa Ntanzi (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
BETWAY T20 CHALLENGE CRICKETER OF THE SEASON
Reeza Hendricks (Imperial Lions)
Sisanda Magala (Imperial Lions)
Keshav Maharaj (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
Kyle Verreynne (Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras)
CSA 4-DAY DOMESTIC SERIES CRICKETER OF THE SEASON
Keshav Maharaj (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
Aiden Markram (Momentum Multiply Titans)
Senuran Muthusamy (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
Kyle Verreynne (Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras)
MOMENTUM ONE-DAY CUP CRICKETER OF THE SEASON
Robbie Frylinck (Hollywoodbets Dolphins)
Dominic Hendricks (Imperial Lions)
Janneman Malan (Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras)
Imran Manack (Six Gun Grill Cape Cobras)
INTERNATIONAL PROFESSIONAL AWARDS
INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER OF YEAR
George Linde
Janneman Malan
Lizaad Williams
T20 INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Janneman Malan
Aiden Markram
Tabraiz Shamsi
Rassie van der Dussen
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
David Miller
Anrich Nortje
Andile Phehlukwayo
Rassie van der Dussen
TEST CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Temba Bavuma
Dean Elgar
Aiden Markram
Anrich Nortje
KFC STREETWISE AWARD
Faf du Plessis (199 vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test in Centurion, 26-30 December 2020)
Shabnim Ismail (5-12 vs Pakistan, 2nd T20I in Durban, 31 January 2021)
Lizelle Lee (132 vs India, 3rd ODI in Lucknow, 12 March 2021)
George Linde (5-64 vs Pakistan, 2nd Test in Rawalpindi, 4-8 February 2021)
Aiden Markram (108 vs Pakistan, 2nd Test in Rawalpindi, 4-8 February 2021)
Anrich Nortje (6-56 vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test in Johannesburg, 3-7 January 2021)
CSA DELIVERY OF THE YEAR
Shabnim Ismail
Ayabonga Khaka
Masabata Klaas
Wiaan Mulder
Anrich Nortje
Lutho Sipamla
MOMENTUM WOMEN’S T20 INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Anneke Bosch
Tazmin Brits
Shabnim Ismail
Sune Luus
MOMENTUM WOMEN’S ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Shabnim Ismail
Marizanne Kapp
Lizelle Lee
Laura Wolvaardt
SA FANS’ CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Shabnim Ismail
Lizelle Lee
Janneman Malan
Nonkululeku Mlaba
Anrich Nortje
Kagiso Rabada
Kyle Verreynne
Laura Wolvaardt
SA WOMEN’S CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Shabnim Ismail
Lizelle Lee
Sune Luus
Laura Wolvaardt
SA MEN’S CRICKETER OF THE YEAR
Temba Bavuma
Aiden Markram
Anrich Nortje
Rassie van der Dussen
