Perry ends the year with top ICC award

It has been a stellar year for women’s cricket, and Ellyse Perry has been one of the players that have seen it’s raise in profile among the public. It is Perry’s first ICC award and the first time that the ICC Women’s cricketer of the year award has been named in honour of Rachael Heyhoe Flint. Heyhoe Flint who died earlier this year is one of the undoubted legends of the game having helped organised the first World Cup in 1973 and the first woman to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2010. Perry said, “I’d like to acknowledge the incredible work and legacy Rachael has left behind for the game, she is certainly missed.” 



 



The voting academy that awarded Perry includes some illustrious names, including Mel Jones, Lisa Sthalekar, Charlotte Edwards, Anjum Chopra and Ian Bishop. In the process Perry beat in to second Amy Satterthwaite and Harmanpreet Kaur into third.



 



Perry is the third Australian to win the ICC’s top award for women cricketers following in the footsteps of both Karen Rolton (2006) and Shelley Nitschke (2010). The period over which the award was judged was from September 2016 to the end of this year’s women’s Ashes.



 



Perry was clearly pleased to win the award “2017 has been a very special year for women’s cricket with many milestones reached, so it is a privilege and honour to receive the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award.”



 



Perry was not the only Australian to win an award as Beth Mooney not only won the ICC Women’s Emerging Player of the Year award but was also awarded the ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Year.



 



The emerging player award is offered to a player under the age of 26 and having played fewer than 6 ODIs and 10 T20s before the voting period.



 



Mooney scored more T20I runs than anyone else during this time with 255 with an impressive strike-rate of 138.5. She also scored nearly 500 runs in 14 ODIs. Mooney had put in a rich vain of form in the WBBL for the Brisbane Heat.



 



The ICC Emerging Player of the Year award has been introduced this year as the ICC continue to raise the profile of the women’s game and as part of their commitment to recognise the best performing young talent.



 



Mooney beat Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor the West Indies duo to the T20I player of the Year category. Mooney speaking about her awards said “This is very unexpected, and I’m honoured to receive the ICC T20I and Emerging Player of the Year awards. I play cricket to contribute to the team's success and not for personal accolades, but equally it is nice to be rewarded for all the work of the years.”



 



The other major winner was Amy Satterthwaite the New Zealand all-rounder who scored an impressive 1,183 runs from just 24 ODIs. Satterthwaite was delighted with her award “Everyone talks about the four hundreds, that is something that you need situations to go in your favour to hit something like this. It was pretty special at the same time, but I have enjoyed playing my cricket in the last 12 months and really enjoyed my time with the team. I think we have a good team which is gelling together and hitting nice momentum.” She beat Perry and Alex Hartley both of who had good world cups. It also showed that there is plenty of talented players in the world game at the moment and you need to be at the top of your game to win one of the awards.