Scotland’s talismanic skipper Kyle Coetzer has joined an esteemed pool of cricketers in the ICC annual awards by scooping the Associate Cricketer of the Year accolade. The veteran, who spearheaded his side to the T20 World Cup earlier, saw off competition from his teammate Calum MacLeod to take home the prestigious honor.
Coetzer has represented his national side in 59 ODIs and 58 T20Is, amassing 3,795 runs across formats. He has been a rock in the batting order for Scotland for over 15 years, having scored 5,513 runs in 169 List A cricket matches. Earlier, they reserved a ticket to Australia for themselves by beating the United Arab Emirates by 90 runs in their fifth-place playoff at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, on October 30.
The 35-year-old, who played a pivotal role in the qualifiers, expressed notable surprise on winning the award. He remarked:
“It’s a huge honor to even be considered for the 2019 Associate Player of the Year award. I certainly didn’t expect to win it with many strong performers throughout the year from various countries. Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way from family, friends, supporters, Cricket Scotland staff and all of my team-mates who keep me going.”
Providing an insightful opinion on the situation of non-Test playing nations, the batsman said:
“Within Associate countries, there is a strong pool of talent and many players continually pushing and deserving of this award, which is the real winner for me. The development of Associate teams and the ability of players involved is clearly is on the rise and so will the standards expected to win this award.”
Soon after it was declared, Cricket Scotland congratulated their main man, announcing:
“Cricket Scotland congratulates Kyle on another great achievement to add to his illustrious playing career for Scotland.”
Scotland, who are set to compete with the best in the T20 World Cup later in October, have a one-off T20 and ODI scheduled against New Zealand and Australia, each, later this year prior to the start of the highly-anticipated event.
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