Quinton de Kock,
Quinton de Kock. (Photo by Isuru Sameera Peris/Gallo Images)

South Africa’s current limited-overs captain Quinton de Kock has been awarded the South Africa Men’s Cricketer of the Year award for his excellent contribution to the game for his country. The award ceremony was held virtually because of the ongoing coronavirus crises.

Besides South Africa Men’s Cricketer of the Year, he was also named Test Cricket of the Year. The wicketkeeper-batsman has so far played 47 Test matches and scored 2934 runs.

In women’s cricket, Laura Wolvaardt, who has, so far, played 50 ODIs and 25 T20Is, won the South Africa Women’s Player of the Year award. She was also named Proteas ODI Cricketer of the Year. The opening batter has scored 1871 ODI runs and 427 T20I runs.

Quinton de Kock sixth batsman to receive this title two times:

Quinton de Kock has become the sixth South African player to receive Men’s Cricketer of the Year award for twice. Before him, Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Kagiso Rabada are the players adjudged with this award. Cricket South Africa’s CEO Jacques Faul heaped praise on de Kock’s batting and captaincy in white-ball format.

Quinton de Kock
Quinton de Kock. Image Credit: Getty Images.

“Quinny is the leading wicketkeeper/batsman in Test cricket and is, in fact, one of the leading batsmen in both red-ball and white-ball cricket. He is also starting to emerge as an outstanding leader as witnessed by the Proteas clean sweep of Australia in their recent ODI series,” Faul said via a press statement.

Quinton de Kock’s best as the captain against Australia in the ODI series earlier this year. His side dominated in the three-match ODI series and whitewashed the visitors by 3-0.

The aggressive opening batsman has represented South Africa in 121 ODIs and 44 T20Is. He has scored 5135 runs, including 15 centuries and 25 half-centuries, at an average of 44.65 with a strike rate of 94.84 in ODIs. In T20Is, he has amassed 1266 runs, including six half-centuries at an average of 31.43 with a strike rate of 136.07.