England and Durham Cricket all-rounder Ben Stokes has won the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Player of the Year after a fabulous 12 months that saw him play a decisive role in England’s dramatic victory at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 along with a host of other memorable performances.
Stokes, who kept his nerve to smash an unbeaten 84 in the final against New Zealand, aggregated 719 runs and bagged 12 wickets in 20 ODIs during the voting period. He also scored 821 runs and took 22 wickets in 11 Tests, the highlight being an unbeaten 135 to win a nail-biting Ashes thriller in Leeds.
Stokes said: “It is quite flattering to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year. The past 12 months have been incredible for England cricket and to lift the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time was our greatest achievement.
“This award is testament to my teammates and the support staff that have been there every step of the way. Fundamentally, without the support of these individuals, we would never achieved our objective of lifting a major trophy.
“There is an incredible bond between teammates and to savour our achievements, whether that’s winning the World Cup Final at Lord’s or digging deep to win a Test match against Australia at Headingley. It is satisfying you can accomplish these superb highs together.
“The last 12 months have been the best in my career, and I believe what we attained will be the catalyst to achieve further success over the next few years.”
The 28-year-old Stokes was elated at winning the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy but remembered to credit his team and support staff.
Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins has been named the Test Player of the Year and India opener Rohit Sharma the ODI Player of the Year in other major men’s ICC awards announced on Wednesday. India seamer Deepak Chahar won T20I Performance of the Year, Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne has been named as Emerging Cricketer of the Year, whilst Scotland’s Kyle Coetzer is the Associate Cricketer of the Year.
India captain Virat Kohli, who had swept the Player of the Year, Test Player of the Year and ODI Player of the Year last year, has won the Spirit of Cricket Award. He won the award for his gesture at the World Cup, when he egged the crowd on to support Steve Smith rather than boo him soon after his return to international cricket from a one-year suspension for changing the condition of the ball. Kohli has also been named captain of both the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.
Meanwhile, England umpire Richard Illingworth has become the seventh person to win the David Shepherd Trophy for Umpire of the Year. This is the first time that the 56-year-old has won the award named after the late umpire from England.
ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney congratulated the winners of the awards this year and wished them all the best for the future. She said: “On behalf of the ICC, I would like to congratulate all of the individual 2019 award winners as well as those players named in the ICC Teams of the Year.
“The awards celebrate the world’s best cricketers and this has undoubtedly been an extraordinary year for men’s cricket. The highlight of course was the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 that ended in such dramatic fashion. Ben Stokes was, of course in the midst of all the action during the event from that quite incredible catch at the Oval right through to that epic final at Lord’s and is a very deserving winner of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.”