Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy Award is awarded to the best cricketer of the year in an annual event by International Cricket Council (ICC). It is the ultimate individual award presented to the male cricketers for their superlative performances every year.
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy – Name Reason
The award is presented in the name of a former West Indies cricket team captain – Sir Garfield Sobers. His name was chosen by a panel consisting of Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Holding and Richie Benaud.
Sir Garfield, who is also known as Garry Sobers, played for West Indies between 1954 and 1974. He is considered as the game’s best ever all-rounder. He played 93 Tests, scored 8032 runs at an average of 57.78, and picked 235 wickets to his name. His score of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958, was the highest Test individual score in an innings until Brian Lara broke it in 1994. He was also the first batsman ever to hit six sixes in a single over of six consecutive balls in first-class cricket.
The Award was first presented in 2004 to Rahul Dravid – former Indian batsman.
Winners List – ICC Cricketer of the Year Awards
Here is the list of winners who have won this prestigeous cricketer award year by year.
| YEAR | AWARD WINNER | COUNTRY |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Rahul Dravid | India |
| 2005 | Jacques Kallis Andrew Flintoff | South Africa England |
| 2006 | Ricky Ponting | Australia |
| 2007 | Ricky Ponting | Australia |
| 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 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2019 | Ben Stokes | England |
Stats Highlights
2 – Most times any player have won this awards – Virat Kohli (2017 & 2018), Ricky Ponting (2006 & 2007) & Mitchell Johnson (2009 & 2014).
Steve Smith – the youngest player to win this award at the age of 26 in 2015.
Sachin Tendulkar – the oldest player to win this award at the age of 37 in 2010.
Ponting and Virat are the only two players to win this award in the consecutive years.
Ben Stokes won the latest Sir Garfield Sobers award in 2019.
Both Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis were declared as the joint winners of this award in 2005. Both players finished level on 86 votes after the count-up votes of the 50-member ICC Awards Voting Academy.
Have a look at our Top 5 Cricketers of the Decade (2010s)
Wrapping up
I would like to wrap this content with a question for the readers.
Here you go! Whom do you think will win this award in 2020?
Post your answers in the comment section.
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