Australia skipper Smith named ICC Cricketer of the Year

DUBAI (92 News) – Steve Smith became the fourth Australia player, and 11th overall, to win the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2015, on Wednesday.

Smith also bagged the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award, which makes the Australian skipper only the seventh cricketer after Rahul Dravid (2004), Jacques Kallis (2005), Ricky Ponting (2006), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and Mitchell Johnson (2014) to win both the coveted prizes in the same year.

During the voting period, which ran from 18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015, the 26-year-old from New South Wales finished as the leading run-scorer in Tests with 1,734 runs in 25 innings of 13 matches at an average of 82.57. This included seven centuries and six half-centuries.

In 26 One-Day Internationals, Smith scored 1,249 runs at an average of just under 60 with four centuries and eight half-centuries. He was a member of the Australia side which won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.

His team mate Faf du Plessis won the award for best Twenty20 performance of 2015 for his 56-ball innings of 119 against West Indies in January, the third highest score of all time in T20 internationals.

Australian paceman Josh Hazlewood was named best emerging player, while the Spirit of Cricket Award went to New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, who made a virtue of his team's sportsmanship as he led them to the final of the World Cup.