Proteas and Western Province star Laura Wolvaardt was rewarded for a great season with the Sport Personality of the Year award.

The Sport Industry Awards are one of South Africa’s most distinguished awards ceremonies for sport and business, acknowledging leaders and the movers and shakers within the business of sport.  

The 23-year-old has enjoyed a career-best season with bat in hand, particularly on the ODI stage. Wolvaardt recorded 882 runs in 18 matches at an average of 49.00 with one century and eight half-centuries for South Africa.   

Her outstanding year included a hugely influential showing at the Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand in March, where the Cape Town-born cricketer bagged 443 runs, the most a South African player has ever scored at the World Cup, to help the Proteas reach the semi-finals.  

Another notable achievement for Wolvaardt was her involvement in Team South Africa’s appearance in the inaugural Women’s T20 competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The top-order batter also made her hugely anticipated debut in test cricket when South Africa took on England in a one-off encounter in Taunton, England.  

Watch: Wolvaardt hits 90* in Hundred

Speaking from Australia, after helping guide her Adelaide Strikers side to the Women’s BBL title, Wolvaardt said: “It’s such an honour to be receiving this award. It has been a big year for me, I have played a lot of cricket and to see women’s cricket being recognised on such a big stage is amazing and it is great to see the progress that the game has made over the last couple of years.

“For me this year, my favourite moment was probably the World Cup. We had a really good World Cup in New Zealand where we made the semi-finals of the tournament. It was a great team performance all-round, and everyone contributed at different times and it was just a really good tournament to be a part of.  

“I am very honoured to be receiving this award. Thank you to everyone at the event for making it possible and hopefully it is the beginning of many more to come.”