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Proteas skipper AB de Villiers would take the Cricketer of the Year title hands down when Cricket SA hosts its gala awards evening on June 3 – if it were up to a public vote.
De Villiers is up against four other big names and it would be a rare feat if he could bag the main gong for the second year in a row. He’ll have to beat out strong contenders Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla.
But unfortunately for AB, the award is not decided by the public. There are few cricketers so universally adored by international players and most fans around the globe, as shown by the online reaction last week when De Villiers scored a blistering century in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
But what of his efforts during the judging period, April 2014 to April 2015? The judges obviously looked across the formats to decide their five picks, which is why they ended up with a core group of Proteas seniors, the ones who are first on any team sheet.
The Proteas played six tests in that time, two against Sri Lanka, one against Zimbabwe and three against the West Indies. De Villiers scored two centuries and a 50.
In the same time frame, they played 32 ODIs, with AB making four tons and 10 half-centuries. He also led the side to a World Cup semifinal.
Amla captained those test series and the Proteas lost none. He scored a century and a double ton, the one that saved the test at Centurion, and in ODIs he scored an incredible eight centuries and five half-tons. In the four ODIs he played against the Windies this January, he made at least 60 in all of them.
The Proteas only played seven T20s in the required time, losing to both the Aussies and the Windies, but format skipper Faf only played three of those, scoring a ton in one of them.
Faf’s success came from elsewhere, scoring three Test 50s and a ton, while in ODIs he made four centuries. Three of those came in the tri-series in Zimbabwe, leading to the Proteas’ eventual series victory, while he also bagged eight 50s.
Looking at the bowlers nominated, Steyn’s 2015 has not been his best in the shorter formats. In 25 ODIs since last April, he took 39 wickets, but a lacklustre World Cup and a poor IPL leaves him a bit down in the minds of the fans.
But test-wise, he was his impressive self. Steyn took 34 wickets in those six games, with 6/34 against the Windies in Centurion. He bagged two other five-fers, and went wicketless only once, in the first innings in Centurion – so who cares about that?
Morkel, on the other hand, has had a very good year in the shorter formats and was the Proteas’ best bowler at the World Cup. He took wickets in every game he played, only once fewer than two, and in that thrilling semifinal he bagged three scalps. He took 28 wickets in tests, and went wicketless in just one innings.
Amla leads the nominations with three, and one imagines he’s the real challenger to De Villiers defending his title. Faf, Morkel, Steyn and AB each have two nominations, though one can see Imran Tahir claiming the ODI award, as he took a nifty 44 wickets
