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England’s Ben Stokes Named ICC Best Cricketer Of The Year 2019

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Ben Stokes Named ICC Cricketer of the Year 2019
Ben Stokes Image Source: sportsphotographer.eu/Bigstock

England’s Ben Stokes took the world by storm twice in the year 2019 with his heroic performances in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Final and the third Ashes Test at Headingly. His performances clearly pushed the boundaries on what is considered normal and inspired cricket fans all over the world. He gave English fans a moment to cherish for a lifetime, by winning first-ever Cricket World Cup for England on 14 July 2019 at Lords. It comes as no surprise that the ICC awards panel has named Ben Stokes as the ICC Best Cricketer of the Year 2019 and honored him with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the same.

Ben Stokes had a wonderful year, 2019 both in the ODIs and the Tests. In 20 ODIs, he amassed a total of 719 runs and also took 12 wickets. And in 11 Tests, he scored 821 runs while also taking 22 wickets.

His sensible inning of not-out 84 runs from 98 balls in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 while chasing the target of 242 runs set by New Zealand, will go as one of the greatest innings in the history of cricket. And the match as one of the greatest matches. As everyone knows, Ben Stokes took that match to a tie and thus to a thrilling super over, which got tied as well. Ben Stokes was the player of the match as he took his team to the historic first-ever cricket World Cup win.

Just on the basis of the ICC Cricket World Cup final performance, Ben Stokes would have become a strong contender for the ICC Cricketer of the year award. But, just a month later, he produced another epic knock in the final innings of the third Ashes Test at Headingly, which gave another round of goosebumps to many.

A not-out inning of 135 runs from 219 balls, hitting 11 fours and 8 sixes, helped England win the third Test by just one wicket, on August 25, 2019. This inning took the mainstream media and social media by storm one more time and made people of all ages fall in love with Test cricket once again.

Ben Stokes expressed his joy while accepting the award, “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 savor 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.”

 

Many other important awards were announced by the ICC (International Cricket Council).

India’s Rohit Sharma who too had a fabulous year, 2019, was named as the ICC ODI Cricketer of the year. He scored 1409 runs from 28 matches with seven hundreds, including the record-breaking five hundreds in ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, scoring 648 runs.

Australia’s Pat Cummins took 59 wickets in 12 Tests and became the No.1 Test bowler in the world, with his smart and lethal pace bowling. And thus emerged as the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2019.

His teammate Marnus Labuschagne who impressed everyone in the Ashes series and the series thereafter with his formidable batting was named as the ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2019. With 3 hundreds and 7 fifties, Labuschagne scored 1104 runs in 11 Test matches at an average of 64.94, becoming the leading run-scorer in 2019 in the Test format.

Other awards announced by the ICC:

T20I Performance of the Year – Deepak Chahar (India, 6-7 v Bangladesh)

Associate Cricketer of the Year – Kyle Coetzer (Scotland)

Spirit of Cricket Award – Virat Kohli stopping the fans booing Steve Smith at the Oval

David Shepherd Trophy for Umpire of the Year – Richard Illingworth

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