Cape Town - Proteas Women’s duo Dane’ van Niekerk and Lizelle Lee have been honoured in the prestigious 2022 edition of the Wisden Almanack.
Van Niekerk was named among the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year alongside New Zealand’s South African-born batter Devon Conway, England’s Ollie Robinson and Indian duo Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma.
The Proteas captain Van Niekerk was the only women’s cricketer among the five honouries.
Congratulations on your #WisdenAwards ladies 🏆
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) April 21, 2022
Lizelle Lee scooped the Leading Woman Cricketer in the World award while Dane van Niekerk was named as one of @WisdenCricket Five Cricketers of the Year 💪 pic.twitter.com/zSHanLUWon
Lee, meanwhile, was named Wisden's Leading Woman Cricketer in the World. Lee was honoured with the accolade after a dominant 2021 in which she averaged 90.28 with the bat in ODI cricket, including a spectacular series against India in which she scored 288 runs in four innings.
WISDEN AWARDS
— Wisden Almanack (@WisdenAlmanack) April 20, 2022
THE LEADING CRICKETERS IN THE WORLD#wisdenawardshttps://t.co/oJqdk4m1Sd pic.twitter.com/F9vfc8ky4m
Although being injured for much of the international season, which culminated in the all-rounder missing the 2022 ICC Women’s World Cup too, Van Niekerk played an invaluable role in ensuring England’s new domestic competition, The Hundred, was a major success.
She led her team, the Oval Invincibles, which also contained fellow Proteas Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, to the inaugural title at Lord’s. She was the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 259 runs at 43, and took eight wickets with the ball at an average of 20, to earn the Most Valuable Player award.
Former England Test captain Joe Root was named Wisden’s Leading Male Cricketer of the Year after an historic 12 months in which he scored 1,708 Test runs in a calendar year - the third most in history.
Root quit last week after five years as England skipper following a run of one win in 17 games even though his personal form never suffered during this period.
Pakistan’s Mohammed Rizwan was Wisden’s T20 Male Cricketer of the Year.
@ZaahierAdams