Virat Kohli
Indian skipper Virat Kohli on Monday added another feather to his crammed hat as he bagged the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade. He also won the ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade Award.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the announcement via Twitter, bestowing the honour 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 the most fifties (94), most runs (20396) besides having the maximum average (56.97) among players with 70 plus innings.
Overall, the 32-year-old has amassed 12040 runs in ODIs, 7318 runs in Tests and 2928 runs in T20 Internationals, averaging more than 50 across formats.
"Firstly, 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. Apart from that also there have been some very special games for Team India as well in the last decade and for me personally as well. I would not want to mention my personal knocks so much because then I will need to rate them, and I don’t like doing that. For me, every game played for India is as important and as crucial. It has just been an honour for me to go out there and perform for my team and for my country and it is a great honour for me to win this award," Kohli told BCCI after winning the award.
Meanwhile, his former teammate, MS Dhoni, won the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade. The former India captain was chosen by fans unanimously for his gesture of calling back England batsman Ian Bell after a bizarre run out in the Nottingham Test in 2011.
Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry was awarded the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade. Perry, who won the T20 World Cup four times with Australia along with the ODI World Cup in 2013, scored 4349 runs in the period of consideration by ICC along with 213 wickets. The Aussie also won the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Decade.
Steve Smith was declared the ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Decade, while Afghanistan's Rashid Khan was named as the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Decade.
(with PTI inputs)
