ICC Cricketer of the Year: Full list from 2004 to 2023
The ICC Cricketer of the Year award recognises and honours the best player of the entire year. The Cricketer of the Year award is conducted by the ICC. It was first conducted in 2004 and the first award winner was Rahul Dravid.
The ICC Cricketer of the Year award is also known as the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy, named after the legendary West Indies cricketer. A three-man panel was set up by ICC to come up with a name for the Best Cricketer of the Year award. The panel consisted of Richie Benaud, Michael Holding and Sunil Gavaskar.
Following is the list of winners from 2004 – 2023:
| Year | Winner | Nation |
| 2004 | Rahul Dravid | India |
| 2005 | Jacques Kallis Andrew Flintoff |
South Africa/ England |
| 2006 |
Ricky Ponting
|
Australia
|
| 2007 | ||
| 2008 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies |
| 2009 | Mitchell Johnson | Australia |
| 2010 | Sachin Tendulkar | India |
| 2011 | Jonathan Trott | England |
| 2012 | Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka |
| 2013 | Michael Clarke | Australia |
| 2014 | Mitchell Johnson | Australia |
| 2015 | Steve Smith | Australia |
| 2016 | Ravichandran Ashwin | India |
| 2017 |
Virat Kohli
|
India
|
| 2018 | ||
| 2019 | Ben Stokes | England |
| 2021 | Shaheen Afridi | Pakistan |
| 2022 | Babar Azam | Pakistan |
| 2023 | Announced Soon | Announced Soon |
Key Points –
- Ricky Pointing in 2006 & 2007, Mitchell Johnson is 2009 & 2014 and Virat Kohli in 2017 & 2018 are the only players who have won the award twice.
- Ricky Pointing and Virat Kohli are the only players to win the award in consecutive years.
- In 2015, When the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy was awarded to Steve Smith at the age of 26, he became the youngest to receive the award.
- In 2010, The legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy, making him the eldest player to receive this honour at the age of 37.
- The last two editions have been won by Pakistan players, Shaheen Afridi in 2021 and Babar Azam in 2022.
- In 2005, Jacques Kallis and Andrew Flintoff were jointly awarded the trophy as both have received the same amount of votes.
Probable Winners of 2023 –
2023 has been the year for cricket. A lot of cricket has been played and we have seen some extraordinary performances from youngsters as well as senior players. 2023 saw the WTC final between India and Australia, the ICC Cricket World Cup in which Australia was crowned as the champions with some great individual performances. We have narrowed it down to a few nominees that we think have the highest chances to win the 2023 Sir Garfield Sobers trophy –
1. Shubman Gill –
Gill enjoyed a fabulous 2023 as he was the highest run scorer for the entire year. Gill scored 2118 international runs in 45 matches with an impressive average of 50.42. Gill has surely attracted a lot of attention and seems like one of the strongest contenders for the trophy.
2. Virat Kohli –
Virat Kohli ageing just like a fine wine, what a year it has been for Kohli. Virat Kohli was named the Man of the Tournament in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. Kohli was also able to achieve his 50th century by beating the record of legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Kohli scored 1934 runs in 34 matches at an average of 66.68.
3. Daryll Mitchell –
Mitchell had a fantastic year where he scored 1919 runs in 47 matches with an average of 42.64. Mitchell also took 24 wickets and was the highest scorer for New Zealand in CWC 2023. Hence, Mitchell is one of the top contenders for the top cricketing honour.
