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Perry, Smith honoured in ICC Cricketer of the Decade awards

Ellyse Perry crowned the best cricketer across all formats of the past decade while Steve Smith took out the Test award

Ellyse Perry has swept the pool at the ICC awards to be crowned the best women's player of the past decade, while Steve Smith has been named the best men's Test player.

Perry was unveiled as the winner of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade, while also claiming both the ODI and T20I Cricketer of the Decade gongs.

Smith was named the ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Decade, while India superstar Virat Kohli took out the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade, while also winning the men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade award, and Adelaide Strikers' Afghanistan import Rashid Khan was named the best men's T20I player of the past 10 years.


ICC Awards of the Decade

Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Male Cricketer of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India)

Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia)

ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Decade: Steve Smith (Australia)

ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia)

ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India)

ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia)

ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Decade: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan)

ICC Men's Associate Cricketer of the Decade: Kyle Coetzer (Scotland) 

ICC Women's Associate Cricketer of the Decade: Kathryn Bryce (Scotland)

ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade: MS Dhoni (India)


Perry came out on top in a pool of six nominees for the major award that also included teammate Meg Lanning, New Zealand's Suzie Bates, England's Sarah Taylor, India's Mithali Raj and West Indies' Stafanie Taylor; recognised for a decade of dominance that saw her score 4,349 runs and take 213 wickets in 179 matches across all formats.

The decade saw Perry evolve from a fiery young fast bowler into one of the finest allrounders the game has ever seen, as she worked tirelessly to take her batting to a whole new level.

Highlights of that period included Perry's epic double Test century at North Sydney Oval in November 2017, an unbeaten 213no that set a new record for highest Test score by an Australian woman.

Perry reflects on her incredible Ashes double century

She also broke through for her maiden ODI century against New Zealand in February 2019, and followed that up with a second one-day ton against West Indies in Antigua six months later – knocks that bookended her second Test century, scored in Taunton last July.

Perry was named the ICC's Female Cricketer of the Year twice in the past decade, a period in which she also won the Belinda Clark Award as Australia's top player three times.


Perry's Decade of Dominance

Tests: 6 | Runs: 573 | Ave: 114.60 | HS: 213* | 100s: 2 | 50s: 2 | Wickets: 26 | Ave: 16.73 | BBI: 6-32 | 5w: 2 

ODIs: 73 | Runs: 2621 | Ave: 68.97 | HS: 112* | 100s: 2 | 50s: 26 | Wickets: 98 | Ave: 25.09 | BBI: 7-22 | Eco: 4.33 | 5w: 2 

T20Is: 100 | Runs: 1155 | Ave: 30.39 | HS: 60* | 50s: 4 | Wickets: 89 | Ave: 20.64 | BBI: 4-12 | Eco: 5.95 | 4w: 3


Smith took out the Test award from a pool of seven nominees that also included England pair James Anderson and Joe Root, India captain Kohli, Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath, Pakistan's Yasir Shah and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson.

In 71 matches across the decade, the star right-hander scored 7,042 runs at a staggering average of 64.60, including 26 centuries.

Smith rattles off another 50

While Root, Alastair Cook, Kohli and David Warner all scored more Test runs across the same period, Smith's came in far fewer matches, while his average was more than 10 runs higher than that of the next best, Kohli's 53.41.

Only Kohli reached triple figures on more occasions, scoring 27 tons in his 87 matches.

Kohli marches to third ton of the summer

With a dearth of matches due to COVID19 putting paid to the usual Team of the Year awards, the ICC instead introduced a one-off edition of its annual awards program, aimed at celebrating the stand-out performers and moments from the past 10 years of international cricket.

Judges looked at performances between January 1, 2011 and October 7, 2020 when selecting the nominees and winners, and players needed to have made international appearances in the relevant format for at least five years throughout that period.

Winners were selected by a voting committee comprising prominent cricket journalists and broadcasters from around the world, including Alison Mitchell, Ian Bishop, Natalie Germanos and Peter Lalor, while fans also accounted for 10 per cent of the vote.

The individual awards followed Sunday's unveiling of the best teams of the decade.

ICC Teams of the Decade

ICC Men's Test Team of the Decade: Alastair Cook (ENG), David Warner (AUS), Kane Williamson (NZ), Virat Kohli (c) (IND), Steve Smith (AUS), Kumar Sangakkara (wk) (SL), Ben Stokes (ENG), Ravichandran Ashwin (IND), Dale Steyn (SA), Stuart Broad (ENG), Jimmy Anderson (ENG)

ICC Women's ODI Team of the Decade: Alyssa Healy (AUS), Suzie Bates (NZ), Mithali Raj (IND), Meg Lanning (c) (AUS), Stafanie Taylor, Sarah Taylor (wk) (ENG), Ellyse Perry (AUS), Dane van Niekerk (SA), Marizanne Kapp (SA), Jhulan Goswami (IND), Anisa Mohammed (WI)

ICC Men's ODI Team of the Decade: Rohit Sharma (IND), David Warner (AUS), Virat Kohli (IND), AB de Villiers (SA), Shakib Al Hasan (BAN), MS Dhoni (c & wk) (IND), Ben Stokes (ENG), Mitchell Starc (AUS), Trent Boult (NZ), Imran Tahir (SA), Lasith Malinga (SL)

ICC Women's T20I Team of the Decade: Alyssa Healy (wk) (AUS), Sophie Devine (NZ), Suzie Bates (NZ), Meg Lanning (c) (AUS), Harmanpreet Kaur (IND), Stafanie Taylor (WI), Deandra Dottin (WI), Ellyse Perry (AUS), Anya Shrubsole (ENG), Megan Schutt (AUS), Poonam Yadav (IND)

ICC Men's T20I Team of the Decade: Rohit Sharma (IND), Chris Gayle (WI), Aaron Finch (AUS), Virat Kohli (IND), AB de Villiers (SA), Glenn Maxwell (AUS), MS Dhoni (c & wk) (IND), Kieron Pollard (WI), Rashid Khan (AFG), Jasprit Bumrah (IND), Lasith Malinga (SL)