Cummins and Sciver-Brunt are ICC's best cricketers of 2023
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Australia captain Pat Cummins was named the ICC men’s cricketer of 2023 and England allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt won her second consecutive women’s award on Thursday.
Fast bowler Cummins led Australia to victory in the Cricket World Cup and the World Test Championship.
Cummins, who grabbed 42 wickets in 11 test matches in 2023, is the fifth Australian to win the men's award after Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Clarke and Steve Smith.
Cummins also snapped up 17 wickets in 13 one-day internationals that included 3-51 against South Africa in the semifinals of the World Cup and 2-34 against India in the final at Ahmedabad.
“It has been a big year, lots of wonderful team success," Cummins said in a statement. "To get this individual honour is huge and I am pretty amazed. In terms of individual accolades, it is right up there.”
Cummins lauded the efforts of the other nominees including his teammate Travis Head and India’s Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli.
“Travis, as a teammate, I saw him win the World Test Championship final and the World Cup final, and he was the player of the match in both,” Cummins said. “Jadeja and Kohli are both super consistent. They find a way to drag their team out of trouble and win it for them, so to win alongside those guys is really special.”
Sciver-Brunt received the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for a second straight year from fellow nominees Chamari Athapaththu of Sri Lanka and Australian duo Ash Gardner and Beth Mooney.
“I wasn’t expecting it as I was coming up against some players that have done so well in 2023," Sciver-Brunt said. "I’m really pleased and pretty proud.”
Cummins’ teammate Usman Khawaja, the only batter to score more than 1,000 test runs in 2023, won the men’s test cricketer of the year award.
Kohli won his fourth men’s ODI award for scoring 1,377 runs, including six centuries and eight half-centuries. Kohli previously won the ODI award in 2012, 2017 and 2018.
Athapaththu became the first Sri Lankan female cricketer to win an ICC award when she was named ODI cricketer of the year.
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