Steve Smith wins ICC Cricketer of the Year award for 2015

It was a very good day for Australian captain Steven Smith at the ICC awards, as he walked away with ICC Cricketer and Test Cricketer of the Year award while AB de Villiers won the ODI Cricketer of the Year.

During the voting period for the award (18 September 2014 to 13 September 2015), Smith was the leading run-scorer in Tests. The 26-year-old scored 1,734 runs in 13 Tests at an average of 82.57, including seven tons and six fifties.

In ODIs, Smith scored 1,249 runs in 26 matches at an average of almost 60 and was a part of Australia’s World Cup winning squad. But it was AB, who scored 16 more runs in six fewer innings at an average of almost 80 and strike-rate of 128.4, who walked away with the ODI award.

Brendon McCullum, who recently announced that he will be retiring from all forms of cricket, won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award for “inspiring his side to play the game in its true spirit”.

UAE’s Khurram Khan was rewarded for his consistent performances in the year as the 44-year-old won the Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year while Australia’s fast bowler Josh Hazlewood won the Emerging Cricketer of the Year award.

Although it was in a losing cause, Faf du Plessis’ 119 off 56 balls against West Indies at the turn of the year won him the T20I Performance of the Year award.

After winning the T20I Women’s Cricketer of the year last year, Meg Lanning won the Women’s One-Day International Cricketer of the Year in 2015 thanks to her 531 runs in seven ODIs, in which she scored two centuries and three half-centuries.

Having won the ODI award in 2011 and 2012, Stafanie Taylor walked away with the Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year award in 2015, thanks to her 340 runs in 9 matches, which is the most by female batsman in the format during the voting period.

England’s Richard Kettleborough was the recipient of the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year for the third consecutive year.