ICC announces individual and team award categories for year 2021

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the 2021 edition of the ICC Awards, celebrating and rewarding the top performances across men’s and women’s international cricket throughout the year.

The ICC Awards 2021 recognise the outstanding performers following a year that comprised major international events such as the ICC World Test Championship Final and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, alongside numerous bilateral series in which records were broken.

This year’s awards will comprise a total of 13 individual awards in all, as well as five Team of the Year announcements for each format across men’s and women’s cricket.

The individual award categories are as follows:

1. Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year
2. Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year
3. ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year
4. ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
5. ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
6. ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
7. ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
8. ICC Emerging Men’s Cricketer of the Year
9. ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year
10. ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
11. ICC Women’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
12. ICC Spirit of Cricket Award
13. ICC Umpire of the Year

The first seven categories listed above will feature a shortlist of four names, and these will be announced from 28 December to 31 December across all of ICC’s digital and social media channels. The shortlisted categories will recognize those players who have had the most impactful performances in the period under consideration – 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. The names shortlisted for these awards will be decided by a specialist ICC Awards panel, comprising prominent cricket journalists and broadcasters from across the globe along with ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice.

The ICC Voting Academy, comprising a wider selection of global cricket journalists and broadcasters, will vote for their first, second and third choices, while global cricket fans will also be invited to vote for their top performers via ICC’s digital channels. The result of the ICC Voting Academy selections and the fans’ vote will be combined to determine the winner in each of these categories.

The Emerging and Associate categories listed above will not feature shortlists and will be determined solely by the Voting Academy.

The ICC Spirit of Cricket Award honours an action, moment, gesture, or decision on the field of play in international cricket during the year which best reflects the Spirit of Cricket, and this will be determined by the ICC, while the ICC Umpire of the Year Award is determined by votes collected from the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees and Full Member men’s and women’s captains.

Teams of year will be determined by an online survey

The five ICC Teams of the Year will be also decided by the ICC Voting Academy via an online survey – with each voter selecting their teams in the batting order and nominating a captain for each format.

The winners for each category will be announced in January 2022. The five official ICC Teams of the Year are set to be announced on 17 and 18 January, whereas the individual awards pertaining to women’s cricket will be announced on 23 January. The men’s awards, as well as the ICC Spirit of Cricket and ICC Umpire of the Year award, will be announced on 24 January.