The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Monday, announced the winners of the ‘Players of the Month Awards’ for April 2022. Notably, these awards rate the best performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket.
Earlier this month, ICC had shared the list of nominees. In the male category, the race was between South African spinner Keshav Maharaj, his partner-in-crime, Simon Harmer and Oman’s batting star Jatinder Singh.
Similarly, in the female category, the nominees were Australian opener Alyssa Healy, Uganda all-rounder Janet Mbabazi, and England’s star Nat Sciver.
Amongst men, Proteas spinner Maharaj got the award for his impressive performances in the longest format in the recent past. Maharaj completely dominated South Arica’s recent ICC World Test Championship series victory over Bangladesh.
Maharaj went on to take 16 wickets at an average of 12.12, celebrating two seven-wicket hauls in the second innings of both Tests. Riding on his splendid bowling display, South Africa registered the 2-0 series triumph.
”I’m honoured and privileged to receive the ICC Player of the Month award for April, and I want to thank my teammates for helping me win this award. I am really happy with how the team has performed this past season, and I hope we can build on this to reach greater heights as a unit,” said Maharaj, as quoted by ICC.
When it comes to Women’s cricket, the prestigious award was bagged by Healy for her sublime touch in the Women’s Cricket World Cup. The wicketkeeper-batter played a match-winning knock of 170 in the final against England in Christchurch, setting a record for the highest-ever score in the summit clash of any ICC global event. Australia had ended up restricting England to 285 to win the match by 71 runs and lift their seventh ODI World Cup title.
”I am very humbled to win this month’s award ahead of two outstanding players. It was great to see Janet Mbabazi’s name in the mix after a stellar tri-series for Uganda. I’m looking forward to seeing her name in contention for more ICC Awards over the years to come. Thanks to all the fans for voting and supporting the women’s game. It’s been a great start to 2022 for our sport, and I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year holds,” said Healy.
