Pat Cummins named ICC cricketer of the year beating out teammate Travis Head

Sixteen Australians were given ICC awards, but once again captain Pat Cummins stood out, snaring the biggest of them all.

Pat Cummins called 2023 the best year of his cricket career on the basis of his team’s glorious run of success.

But the Australian captain’s leading role in that, and his standing as the best player in the world, has been recognised with the ICC’s Cricketer of the Year award.

Australia won the Test World Championship, ODI World Cup and retained the Ashes in 2023 under Cummins’ stewardship.

Named captain of the ICC’s Test Team of the Year as well, Cummins could also be in line to win his first Allan Border Medal when it’s announced next week having played pivotal roles as skipper as well as with the ball, and at times the bat, throughout his team’s successes.

Pat Cummins lifts the ICC World Test Championship mace. Picture: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

Cummins beat out fellow Aussie Travis Head, as well as Indian duo Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli, to win the award.

He’s the fifth Australian to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy following Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Mitchell Johnson (2009 and 2014), Michael Clarke (2013) and Steve Smith (2015).

Cummins grabbed 59 wickets across 11 Tests and 13 ODIs in 2023, including a memorable match haul of 10-47 in the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan.

His matchwinning 55-run partnership with Nathan Lyon also guided Australia to an unlikely opening Ashes Test win at Edgbaston, a highlight in a stunning year for Cummins.

Cummins with the World Cup trophy. Picture: Saeed Khan / AFP

“It’s a huge honour. It has been a big year, lots of wonderful team success,” Cummins said.

“To get this individual honour is huge and I am pretty amazed. In terms of individual accolades, it is right up there.

“All the other nominees obviously had fantastic years as well. Travis, as a teammate, I saw him win the World Test Championship final and the World Cup final, and he was the player of the match in both matches. He had an amazing year.

“Jadeja and Kohli are both super consistent. They find a way to drag their team out of trouble and win it for them, so to win alongside those guys is really special.”

All up 16 Australians were recognised in the ICC awards, across the men’s and women’s teams, including Usman Khawaja as Test Payer of the Year.

Cricket Australia boss Nick Hockley declared the awards were a measure of the team’s success.

“To have this number of players included across men’s and women’s formats shows how fortunate we are to have so many of the world’s best players representing Australia,” he said.

“I’d also like to thank our high-performance staff who do a fantastic job to create the environment for our world-class players to perform at their best.”

Australian ICC Award winners

Sir Garfield Sobers Award for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year: Pat Cummins

ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year: Usman Khawaja

ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Phoebe Litchfield

ICC Men’s Test Team of the Year: Pat Cummins (C), Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Alex Carey (WK), Mitchell Starc

ICC Women’s ODI Team of the Year: Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney (WK), Ash Gardner, Annabel Sutherland

ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Year: Travis Head, Adam Zampa

ICC Women’s T20I Team of the Year: Beth Mooney (WK), Ellyse Perry, Ash Gardner, Megan Schutt

Originally published as Pat Cummins named ICC cricketer of the year beating out teammate Travis Head