Jason Holder was the biggest winner at the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA)/Cricket West Indies (CWI) annual awards night held on August 19 in Antigua, scooping up the Player-of-the-Year as well as the Test Player-of-the-Year awards.
Shai Hope was named the ODI Player-of-the-Year for a second successive time, while seam-bowling all-rounder Keemo Paul was recognised as the T20 Player-of-the-Year.
All-rounder Deandra Dottin also won big, securing the women’s T20 and ODI Player-of-the-Year awards.
Meanwhile, 22-year-old tearaway fast bowler Oshane Thomas was named the Emerging Player-of-the-Year. Performances between April 2018 and March 2019 were taken into consideration.
In February this year, Holder became the first West Indies player to become the top-ranked Test all-rounder since Sir Garry Sobers in 1974 and claimed 778 rating points, the highest by any West Indies bowler since Courtney Walsh in 2001.
And in January, Holder had made an unbeaten 202 – the third-highest score batting at No. 8 or lower in Test cricket – against England in front of his home crowd in Barbados. All told, Holder hit 565 runs in eight Test matches and claimed 40 wickets, including four five-wicket hauls, during the period.
Hope amassed 757 runs in 15 innings in ODI cricket at an average of 63.08, including three hundreds and three fifties, during the period.
After being plucked out of the CPL, Thomas made his international debut for West Indies in Guwahati in 2018 and added a cutting edge to the seam attack, the highlight being the maiden five-for against England in Gros Islet.
Six months after becoming the No. 1 all-rounder in women’s T20Is, Dottin dominated the awards for women, taking back the Women’s Player-of-the-Year award. In ODIs during the period, Dottin made 207 runs in six innings in addition to taking 15 wickets with the ball. In T20Is, she bagged figures of 5 for 5 – her best in this format.
Offspin-bowling all-rounder Rahkeem Cornwall, who recently broke into West Indies’ Test squad, was named the Championship Player-of-the-Year, while star all-rounder Andre Russell was adjudged Caribbean T20 Player-of-the-Year.
Nineteen-year-old left-arm spinner Joshua Bishop, who was snapped up by Barbados Tridents in the CPL draft in May, won the Under-19 Player-of-the-Year award. (ESPNCricinfo)
