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| October 12, 2005 | Wednesday | Ramzan 7, 1426 |
Flintoff, Kallis share top award as Pietersen scoops two
SYDNEY, Oct 11: England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and South African batsman Jacques Kallis were named joint winners of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for international cricketer of the year on Tuesday.
The pair finished level in the vote count after being short-listed with Shane Warne, his Australian team mate Glenn McGrath and Pakistan’s Inzamamul Haq to share the sport’s most prestigious individual award.
Kallis was also named international Test player of the year ahead of McGrath while Flintoff finished runner-up to his England team mate Kevin Pietersen in the one-day category.
“It’s been an amazing 12 months...an amazing summer,” Flintoff said.
“It’s just been such a roller coaster ride that I can’t remember too much before that.”
Kallis scored 1,497 runs at an average of 71.28, with six hundreds and eight half-centuries, during the 12-month voting period which ended on July 31.
At the peak of his powers, he scored five centuries in as many Tests.
“When I look back at my career I didn’t start off that well so to win something like this is huge,” Kallis said.
Flintoff, last year’s one-day player of the year, averaged 30 with the bat in Tests and 38 in One-day Internationals. He also took 44 wickets in Tests and 25 in one-dayers.
“These two players made outstanding all-round contributions to the fortunes of their sides so it is wholly appropriate that they should both receive the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy,” ICC president Ehsan Mani said.
“The fact they finished level, both polling more than twice as many votes as the player in third place, reflects their massive contributions to international cricket during the voting period.”
England scooped most of the major awards even though the last four Ashes tests did not count because they were outside the qualifying window.
Pietersen, who was born in South Africa but left his homeland to play for England, won two major individual honours while the team won the sprit of cricket award.
“Michael Vaughan’s side has enjoyed considerable success on the field during the voting period and this award shows they have done so by upholding the traditional values of the game,” Mani said.
Pietersen was a runaway winner of the emerging player of the year after a sensational start to his international career but was surprised to beat Flintoff for the one-day award.
The 25-year-old averaged 87.33 in 21 limited-overs internationals, including three hundreds, as well as making two half-centuries in his lone Test appearance.
“I thought I had a pretty good go at the emerging player of the year but the one-day international player of the year really got (surprised) me,” Pietersen said.
ICC chief executive officer Malcolm Speed paid tribute to Pietersen’s achievements.
“This award is a demonstration of the impact Kevin Pietersen has had on international cricket in his first year at the highest level,” he said.
Australia, ranked number one in the world in both forms of the game, were overlooked for all the major awards although Ricky Ponting was named captain of the world Test team for the second time and Simon Taufel was awarded best umpire ahead of Pakistan’s Aleem Dar and South African Rudi Koertzen.
Award winners:
Cricketer of the year: Jacques Kallis (South Africa) and Andrew Flintoff (England).
Test player of the year: Jacques Kallis (South Africa).
One-day international player of the year: Kevin Pietersen (England).
Emerging player of the year: Kevin Pietersen (England).
Umpire of the year: Simon Taufel (Australia).
Spirit of cricket award: England team.
World XI Test team of the year: Virender Sehwag (India), Graeme Smith (South Africa), Ricky Ponting (Australia, captain), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Brian Lara (West Indies), Inzamamul Haq (Pakistan), Andrew Flintoff (England), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Shane Warne (Australia), Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka), Glenn McGrath (Australia). 12th man: Anil Kumble (India)
World One-day International team of the year: Marvan Atapattu (Sri Lanka, captain), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Rahul Dravid (India), Kevin Pietersen (England), Inzamamul Haq (Pakistan), Andrew Flintoff (England), Andrew Symonds (Australia), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Brett Lee (Australia), Rana Navedul Hasan (Pakistan), Glenn McGrath (Australia). 12th man: Jacques Kallis (South Africa).—Reuters
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