Nominations for Cricket South Africa awards

Standard Bank Proteas Young Guns, Kagiso Rabada and Aiden Markram, dominate the nominations for the 2017/18 Cricket South Africa, CSA, Awards.

The gala event to honour South Africa’s top performing cricketers over the past year will take place on June 2 in Johannesburg.

The CSA Awards judging panel recently finalised the nominations list for the glittering occasion.

Rabada, the world’s no 1 ranked test bowler, has been nominated in the following four categories: SA Cricketer of the Year, Standard Bank Test Cricketer of the Year, Standard Bank ODI Cricketer of the Year and RAM Delivery of the Year. In addition, he could secure his peers’ vote as SA Players’ Player of the Year and could be a contender for SA Fans’ Cricketer of the Year.

He was previously named SA Cricketer of the Year in 2016 and has the chance to emulate Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers in winning the award twice.

This is the first year that Markram qualifies for one of the national awards, having only made his debut in the Sunfoil Test series against Bangladesh in September last year that has seen him rocket into the top ten test match batting rankings in the space of only ten matches. He has been nominated in no fewer than three categories: SA Cricketer of the Year, Standard Bank Test Cricketer of the Year and International Newcomer of the Year.

The youthful theme continues with Lungi Ngidi being nominated for the RAM Delivery of the Year in addition to the International Newcomer of the Year.

In addition to Rabada and Markram the other nominations for CSA’s supreme award, the SA Cricketer of the Year, are AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar and Vernon Philander, who are also all in the top ten test rankings for batting in the case of the former two and for bowling in the case of the latter.

The trio has also been nominated for Standard Bank Test Cricketer of the Year while De Villiers also has a nomination for Standard Bank T20 International Cricketer of the Year.

In the women’s section, there are four nominations each for Momentum Proteas captain Dane van Niekerk and fast bowler Shabnim Ismail and three nominations for teenage star Laura Wolvaardt.

“It is my great pleasure and privilege to congratulate all the nominees as we celebrate another successful year of achievement by our Proteas who won major test series against both India and Australia and remained ranked in the top two in the world in test match cricket and number 3 in ODI cricket,” said CSA acting chief executive Thabang Moroe.

“Our ladies have also done us proud by reaching the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s World Cup before losing by the narrowest of margins to the eventual champions.

“And let us not forget to thank all those great and selfless people who work diligently behind the scenes to create opportunities for our leading cricketers to excel.

“Our country continues to produce world-class players. We only need reflect on the superb way in which Kagiso Rabada, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar have shone over the past year and who continue to grow alongside established greats like AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander.”

The CSA Awards Judging Panel consists of Aslam Khota (convener), Neil Manthorp, Victor Mpitsang, Robin Peterson, and Shafiek Abrahams with statistical input from Andrew Samson.

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