Before Monday nights ceremony no Englishman has been awarded the ICC cricketer of the Year award in the seven-year history of cricket's grandest ceremony. Andrew Flintoff did gain a share of the award in 2005 with Jacques Kallis but no Englishman has ever been granted the Test laurels outright either.
Jonathan Trott's triumph in the main award, the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for Cricketer of the Year which he won ahead of favourite Hashim Amla was not expected by many. This is taking nothing away from Jonathan Trott as it is without doubt richly deserved. Trott has thrived in Test and one-day cricket, the latter which he is constantly questioned about his place because of his one pace scoring ability, however his ever growing scoring bubble is yet to pop.
Trott is a quiet man at times and often criticised for being an inexpressive batsman, rare moments of self-expression limited to that elegant whip of his hips and occasional outbursts on reaching a significant milestone. But there was nothing restrained from the look on his face when he was announced as winner of the most-sought after prize in world Cricket. The award marks one of the biggest ever rises in history since his Test match debut two years ago and a perfect acknowledgement of his hard work after disappointing early tours of South Africa and Bangladesh.
More expected on the evening was England opener Alastair Cook's success at being name Test Cricketer of the Year. The reward is recognition for a year of breathe-taking and ruthless run-gathering that brought six hundreds and a general sense of invigoration from a player who was very nearly dropped last year. He has now turned his initial potential into being a real candidate to go down as the best ever batsman in world Cricket. At the beginning of the awards qualification period last August there were many who hinted that Cook could be the weak link in the forthcoming Ashes tour. However a career-reviving, maybe even saving, Test match century against Pakistan at The Oval was the start of a year that saw Cook score 1,302 runs with six hundreds at an average of 76.58.
On the night England were also heavily represented in the ICC Test match team of the year, with Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and James Anderson also selected. The success of the players must not out-shine coach Andy Flower who has transformed the muddled and under-achieving group of players he inherited from previous years and turned them into the current blockbusting Test match force and one-day pretenders has been remarkable.
Graeme Swann was the only English player to have been selected in the one-day international team of the year. This a reward for a 12 month period in which he rose to the top of the bowling rankings in the format.
Other awards on the night saw Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara named one-day player of the year and claim the people's choice award and New Zealand's Tim Southee took the Twenty20 performance gong for his 5-18 against Pakistan.
Essex's Netherlands international Ryan ten Doeschate was name player of the year for the associate and affiliate nations and West Indies Stefanie O'brien won the women's player of the year award, with England's Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway among the other nominees.
Aleem Dar picked up the umpire honour for the third time.
Past Cricketers Of The Year
- 2004 - Rahul Dravid
- 2005 - Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis
- 2006 - Ricky Ponting
- 2007 - Ricky Ponting
- 2008 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul
- 2009 - Mitchell Johnson
- 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar
