The 22-year-old Indian women’s opening batter Smriti Mandhana won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award – Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award – for her extraordinary batting performances.
During the voting period that ran between 1 January and 31 December 2018, the young left-handed batter Mandhana scored 669 runs in 12 ODIs with the average of 66.90 and scored 622 runs in 25 T20Is with the average of 28.27 and the strike-rate of 130.67. While the Indian women’s cricket team finished the 2018 ICC Women’s World T20as the semi-finalist, Mandhana played an important role.
Also read: Women’s ODI and T20I Team Of 2018 Announced By The ICC
Apart from winning the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award, Mandhana also won the ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Year award. After the pacer Jhulan Goswami (2007), Mandhana becomes the second Indian to win the ICC Women’s Player of the Year.
After winning these awards, Mandhana said according to icc-cricket.com, “The awards are pretty special because as a player when you score runs, you want the team to win, and then when you get acknowledged for your performances through these awards, it motivates you to work harder and do well for your team.
“The century I scored in South Africa (in Kimberley) was quite satisfying and then I had good home series against Australia and England. A lot of people used to say I do not score that much in India, so I had a point to prove to myself. That was something which really made me better as a player. And then, of course, the first four matches of the ICC Women’s World T20 were quite memorable.”
On the other hand, Australian wicketkeeper-batswoman Alyssa Healy won the ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Year who won the Player of the Tournament award in 2018 WWT20 in West Indies. While her team won the tournament for the fourth time, Healy finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer (225 runs in six matches with the average of 56.25).
The 19-year-old English left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone won the ICC Women’s Emerging Player of the Year.
The voting academy consisted with Melinda Farrell (Australia), Melanie Jones (Australia), Lisa Sthalekar (Australia), Charlotte Edwards (England), Kalika Mehta (England), Anjum Chopra (India), Snehal Pradhan (India), Lesley Murdoch (New Zealand), Urooj Mumtaz (Pakistan), Natalie Germanos (South Africa), Alan Wilkins (Wales) Ian Bishop (West Indies).
ICC Annual Winners:
Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award (ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year) – Smriti Mandhana (India)
ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Year – Smriti Mandhana (India)
ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Year – Alyssa Healy (Australia)
ICC Women’s Emerging Player of the Year – Sophie Ecclestone (England)
