Calcutta: Ravichandran Ashwin has claimed the top International Cricket Council (ICC) awards for 2015-16, having been named the ICC Cricketer of the Year and the Test Cricketer of the Year. The off-spinner is the third Indian, after Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year.
Ashwin, currently the top-ranked Test bowler, had picked up 48 wickets and scored 336 runs in eight Tests during the ICC's voting period from September 2015 to 2016, in addition to 27 wickets in 19 T20Is. In 2016 alone, he picked up 72 wickets in 12 Tests and became the second-fastest bowler to 200 wickets during the Kanpur match against New Zealand.
Ashwin had finished 2015 as the No.1 ranked Test bowler in the world, a position he twice reclaimed in 2016. The other recipients of the Sir Garfield Trophy include Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint-winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014), Jonathan Trott (2011), Kumar Sangakkara (2012), Michael Clarke (2013) and Steve Smith (2015).
Ashwin's ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award made him only the second India player after Dravid (2004) to bag the two coveted prizes in the same year. Kallis (2005), Ponting (2006), Sangakkara (2012), Clarke (2013), Johnson (2014) and Smith (2015) are the other players to annex both the awards in the same year.
There was more reason to cheer for India as Virat Kohli was named captain of the ODI Team of the Year, which also featured Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. The 12-member side features four South Africans and three Australian cricketers besides one each from England and West Indies.
Explosive batsman AB de Villiers, wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock, pacer Kagiso Rabada and leg-spinner Imran Tahir are the South African cricketers, while David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc represent Australia in the ICC ODI team of the year.
Jos Buttler and Sunil Narine are the other two players in the side. The wily West Indies spinner's selection is surprising since his action has been under the scanner.
Ashwin is the lone Indian in the Test side, which will be led by Alastair Cook, who faces an uncertain future as England's captain after the 4-0 drubbing in India. Warner and Starc are two cricketers who have found out a place in both the teams.
South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock was named ODI Player of the Year. De Kock has been South Africa's leading run-getter in ODIs since September last year, and tallied 793 runs in 16 ODIs during the voting period. Overall, since September 2015, he has scored 1175 runs in 22 matches in the format, with five centuries and three fifties, ahead of senior batsmen like Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla.
One of De Kock's most prolific phases came between October 2015 and February 2016, when he scored four centuries in six innings during the tour of India and the home series against England. He enjoyed the same form in the longest format, with five successive 50-plus scores between August and November 2016. De Kock is the second South Africa player after De Villiers to win the award.
West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite's match-defining 34 not out off 10 balls in the World T20 final against England at the Eden earlier this year was named the T20 Performance of the Year. The all-rounder, who took over as the T20 captain in August, sealed a second World T20 title for West Indies by slamming four successive sixes to end a chase of 156.
Bangladesh seamer Mustafizur Rahman was named Emerging Cricketer of the Year, having notched up impressive performances since his international debut in April 2015. The first Bangladesh cricketer to win an annual ICC award, Mustafizur picked up eight ODI wickets and 19 T20I wickets in the voting period.
Earlier, New Zealand's Suzie Bates had bagged the Women's ODI and T20I Player of the Year awards, while Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq was given the Spirit of Cricket award. Marais Erasmus won the David Shepherd Trophy for the Best Umpire.
