Graeme Smith completed a year of huge achievement when he was named both South African Cricketer of the Year and Castle Test Cricketer of the Year at the glittering 2009 South African Cricket Awards Gala Dinner held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Tuesday evening.
The other major winners were AB de Villiers (Standard Bank One-Day International Cricketer of the Year and SuperSport Fans’ Cricketer of the Year) and JP Duminy (Standard Bank International Pro20 Cricketer of the Year, South African Players’ Player of the Year, and KFC Taste the Action Performance winner).
The awards were all hotly contested after a year of stunning achievement that surpassed all previous successes, and nowhere was this better illustrated than in the category of South African Newcomer of the Year, where Roelof van der Merwe managed to beat off the challenges of Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.
Also indicative of this competition was the fact that there were no fewer than five finalist nominees for the supreme award of South African Cricketer of the Year, compared with the customary three.
The awards cover the period from the start of the tour of England up to the end of the home series against Australia, and thus do not include the recent ICC World Twenty20.
Gerald Majola, Cricket South Africa CEO, said: ”It is most fitting that the South African Cricketer of the Year Award goes to Graeme Smith, who led the Proteas to their best season ever.
”The awards also take note of an impressive crop of young stars whose outstanding achievements on the international stage have ensured the continued success of the Proteas.”
Smith had an outstanding year both as leader and player. He led the Proteas’ Castle Test squad to away Test victories over both England and Australia — something that had never been achieved before — in the space of six months and, although injury ruled him out of much of the ODI programme, his guiding hand was very much in evidence as the Proteas dethroned Australia as the No 1 one-day combination in the world.
As a player he was the leading run scorer in Test cricket in the calendar year of 2008, becoming the first South African to score more than 1 600 runs in a 12-month period. He also played one of the memorable Test innings of all time when his unbeaten 154 at Edgbaston in the fourth innings clinched the series against England. It was one of the top 10 fourth-innings scores of all time in a successful run chase.
His century at Perth also laid the foundation for the Proteas’ epic 414-run chase in the first Test in Australia. It is significant that these two victories are two of South Africa’s four highest successful run chases of all time, the 414 being only three runs shy of the world record.
Although he failed to score a century in either of the key Australian one-day series, De Villiers had a wonderful year with the bat, averaging 63 in Australia (strike rate 87) and 60 at home (strike rate 95). He also confirmed his reputation as the best fielder in world cricket.
Duminy played two innings of innovative genius in the Pro20 matches in Australia. He finished the summer with a career average of 31 and a strike rate of 133 that was only beaten by Albie Morkel (139) and Van der Merwe (160).
Van der Merwe was a story of remarkable success. He made his debut in the Standard Bank International Pro20 at SuperSport Park and never looked back after a man-of-the-match debut that earned him a permanent place in the one-day squad as well.
Both he and Parnell will be strong contenders to be named ICC Young Cricketer of the Year at an awards ceremony in Johannesburg in September.
In the domestic professional category the three main awards went to Van der Merwe (MTN Domestic Championship Cricketer of the Year), Charl Langeveldt (Standard Bank Pro20 Cricketer of the Year) and Imraan Khan (SuperSport Series Cricketer of the Year).
In the Operations category there was recognition for Nashua Titans’ Richard Pybus (Coach of the Year) and Marais Erasmus (Umpire of the Year). — Sapa