Dubai: India captain Virat Kohli headlined Monday the ICC top honours for the decade. Virat Kohli won the ‘Sir Garfield Sobers Award’ for the best male cricketer of the past 10 years. Kohli was also picked for the ‘ODI Cricketer of the Decade Award’. Former India skipper MS Dhoni won the ‘ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade’, chosen by fans for his gesture of calling back England batsman Ian Bell after a bizarre run out in the Nottingham Test in 2011.
See link: https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1343479003668217856
The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the announcements via Twitter. It bestowed the top honours on Kohli, who scored 66 out of his 70 international hundreds, in the ‘ICC Awards’ period. In the same period, he was also the batsman with most fifties (94) and most runs (20396). Kohli also have the maximum average (56.97) among players with 70 plus innings.
Overall, the 32-year-old Kohli has amassed 12,040 runs in ODIs, 7,318 runs in Tests and 2,928 runs in T20 Internationals. He averages more than 50 across formats. Kohli was also part of the World Cup-winning India squad in 2011, something he will cherish for life.
“First, it’s a great honour for me to receive this award. The moments I hold closest to my heart in the last decade definitely has to be the World Cup win in 2011, the Champions Trophy win in 2013 and winning the series in Australia in 2018,” said Kohli in a statement.
See link:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1343478505267453958
On being also named the ODI Cricketer of the Year, Kohli said: “ODI cricket is something that I took to very early. I came to the ODI team first and then, I made my Test debut a couple of years later. So, I got the understanding of my game pretty soon, pretty early. And as I mentioned before, my only intention and mindset was to make winning contributions for the team. I just tried to do every game that I play.”
The Indian captain added: “I never focussed on stats and numbers along the journey at all. Those things just become the by-product of what you do on the field and those for me, just end up being milestones that you cross on the way to the path to victory.”
The world governing body named Australian batting mainstay Steve Smith the ‘Test Cricketer of the Decade’. It chose Afghanistan star Rashid Khan as the ‘T20 Cricketer of the Decade’.
See link for Rashid Khan’s reactions
https://twitter.com/i/status/1343488979178557441
Australia’s Elysse Perry swept the women’s awards, securing the ICC ‘Female Cricketer of the Decade’ honours alongside ODI and T20 ‘Cricketers of the Decade Award’.