ICC Awards: Recognising the Game's Best Players Each Year
A complete guide to the ICC annual awards — Cricketer of the Year, Test/ODI/T20 Player of the Year, Emerging Player, and more — with a history of winners and how players are selected.
What Are the ICC Awards?
The ICC (International Cricket Council) annual awards recognise the best-performing players across all formats over the previous 12-month period. First established in 2004, the awards cover Test cricket, One-Day International cricket, and T20 International cricket, with separate categories for men's and women's cricket, an emerging player award, and an overall Cricketer of the Year (the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy). The awards are determined by a panel of former players, coaches, and cricket media — voting on statistical performance, match impact, and the broader influence of a player's year. The ceremony is one of the ICC's most prominent events and provides a structured year-end assessment of cricket's global form.
The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy
The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year is the most prestigious of the awards, recognising the single player whose contributions across any or all formats were most outstanding in the preceding 12 months. Named after the West Indian who many consider the greatest all-round cricketer in history, the award has been won multiple times by a handful of players who dominated sustained periods: Rahul Dravid won in 2004 (the inaugural year), Ricky Ponting in 2006, Michael Clarke in 2013, Steve Smith in 2015 and 2017 (having been banned for a year in 2018, he won again in 2020), Babar Azam in 2022, and Pat Cummins in 2023 after Australia's World Test Championship and ODI World Cup double.
Test Player of the Year
The ICC Test Player of the Year award specifically recognises batting and bowling excellence in the longest format. Steve Smith has won it four times — more than any other player — reflecting his extraordinary consistency in Test cricket between 2015 and 2023. Virat Kohli won the award in 2018 after scoring 1322 Test runs in the calendar year. Among bowlers, Neil Wagner's New Zealand consistency and James Anderson's England longevity have been recognised. Pat Cummins won consecutive Test Player of the Year awards in 2022 and 2023, validating his status as the world's top-ranked Test bowler. The award has consistently mapped onto the ICC Test Player Rankings, though occasionally a player dominates rankings without winning due to the specific 12-month window.
Women's Awards
The women's awards have grown in prominence alongside the women's game itself. Ellyse Perry won ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year four consecutive times from 2015 to 2019 — an unprecedented streak reflecting Australia's dominance in women's cricket and Perry's extraordinary all-round record (7000+ international runs, 300+ wickets across formats). More recently, Smriti Mandhana (India) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (England) have won multiple awards, reflecting the broadening of women's cricket excellence beyond Australia. The Women's T20I and ODI Player of the Year awards were added as women's cricket expanded its format calendar significantly from 2014 onward.
ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year
The Emerging Cricketer of the Year award recognises players in the early stages of their international careers who have shown outstanding promise. Past winners include Rishabh Pant (2018), Babar Azam (2019 before he won senior awards), and Yashasvi Jaiswal (2024). The emerging award has proven a reliable predictor of future stars: most winners have gone on to sustained international careers. The award also has a women's emerging player equivalent, which has identified several players — such as Shafali Verma in 2020 — who subsequently became central to their national teams.
How the Awards Are Judged
ICC award voting is conducted by a panel that typically includes former international players, respected cricket coaches, and media representatives from multiple countries. Voters consider matches played in ICC-sanctioned internationals during a 12-month window (usually November to October). Statistical performance is the primary consideration — averages, runs scored, wickets taken, strike rates — but the panel also considers 'match-winning moments' and the conditions and opposition quality involved. A century against Australia in a Test series ranks differently from a century against a lower-ranked associate member. The process is not without controversy: the 12-month window sometimes excludes a player's peak performance, and national bias in voting panels has occasionally been alleged. Nonetheless, the ICC Awards remain the sport's most authoritative annual honours.