Kagiso Rabada is the best cricketer in South Africa! If you doubted that, the 21-year-old’s status was underlined when he swept to an unprecedented six awards at the Cricket South Africa function in Sandton on Tuesday night.
The Proteas fast bowler was chosen as the South African Cricketer of the Year after a phenomenal season in which he set the international scene alight in all three formats of the game.
In fact, he eventually became the spearhead of the Proteas’ bowling attack following injuries to Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander.
Apart from the main award, Rabada also claimed the Players’ Player of the Year, Test Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year, SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year and the Delivery of the Year (clean-bowling England’s Jason Roy after striking him with a bouncer the ball before), which sets a new record of six awards.
Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers have previously won five.
Asked in a TV interview on SuperSport afterwards whether he had an idea that he would win so many awards, Rabada said: “No, not at all. I didn’t think so, at this stage of my life that this would happen. I feel like I’m dreaming now!
“Many friends, all my teammates are here. People I’ve played with back at the franchise, some people I played with at school and some close friends as well. Some of my family are here too, so it’s nice to be here in their company.”
Many people’s highlight of Rabada’s season was his 13/144 to set up a morale-boosting victory over England in the final Test in Centurion, which was the second-best match analysis by a South African, behind Makhaya Ntini’s 13/132 against the West Indies.
But the Highveld Lions star had another performance in mind when trying to describe his most memorable moment of last season.
“It’s tough to say because we are always playing all the time, so you can’t really think about it. You play so many games. But I guess when we won the (ODI) series in India – we never won there before. It was a really good time, I enjoyed that,” Rabada said, having taken 10 wickets – the joint-leading wicket-taker with Dale Steyn – in the five-match series that South Africa won 3-2.
There were two other winners in the international category, with leg-spinner Imran Tahir being named as the T20 Cricketer of the Year and opener Stephen Cook the Newcomer of the Year.
On the domestic front, Titans opening batsman Heino Kuhn was rewarded for a stellar season, where he scored over 1 000 runs in the Sunfoil Series, by being picked as the Players’ Player of the Year and Sunfoil Series Player of the Year.
There was further success for the Titans as Rob Walter won the Coach of the Year award after guiding his team to the Sunfoil Series and RamSlam T20 titles.
Former Proteas chairman of selectors and Western Province all-rounder Rushdie Magiet was recognised for his distinguished career in the sport by receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award.
SA Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Dané van Niekerk
SA Players’ Player of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
Test Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
ODI Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
T20I Cricketer of the Year: Imran Tahir
International Newcomer of the Year: Stephen Cook
Domestic Awards
Players’ Player of the Year: Heino Kuhn (Titans)
Sunfoil Series Cricketer of the Year: Heino Kuhn (Titans)
One-Day Cup Cricketer of the Year: Alviro Petersen (Highveld Lions)
RamSlam T20 Cricketer of the Year: Albie Morkel (Titans)
Coach of the Season: Rob Walter (Titans)
SA Fans Cricketer of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
Delivery of the Year: Kagiso Rabada
Lifetime Achievement Award: Rushdie Magiet