By Fakir Hassen, IANS
Johannesburg : India’s Jhulan Goswami was named Women’s Cricketer of the Year at the ICC awards ceremony here Monday evening, an honour she said would greatly boost women’s cricket in India.
“Where there might have been a 35 percent awareness in India of women’s cricket, there will now be about 45 percent,” Goswami said.
“There was no nomination from India in the men’s categories so it is even more special to do this for my country and make up for that disappointment. It was a wonderful pleasure to receive this award from the India (Twenty20) captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as he is such a good player.”
Accepting the award, Goswami said: “It’s a dream come true for me. I am very excited to win this award. It is very unexpected because the other candidates are great players. It is very special for me.”
The 24-year-old from Bengal has averaged 12.40 runs in Test matches and 21.80 in ODIs. Her phenomenal accuracy with the ball is illustrated by her economy rate of 2.10 in Tests and 3.17 in ODIs.
Goswami cited a highlight of her career as her bowling against England when she took 5/33 in the first innings of a Test at Taunton, a haul that included the top three England cricketers. This excellent spell helped to set up a five-wicket victory for her side.
She is also useful with the bat and her top score in international cricket came in this voting period when she hit 69 in another Test against England, at Grace Road, Leicester.
This is the second year of the Women’s Player of the Year award with women’s cricket having been integrated into the ICC in 2006.
“This award does a lot for women’s cricket. I think women’s cricket is growing, slowly. We are getting more and more coverage now in the media and that can only be a good thing for the game as it encourages more girls to take up the game and improves the overall levels of performance.”
The award winner was chosen by a panel of experts on the women’s game and Goswami beat Lisa Sthalekar of Australia and England’s Claire Taylor to take the honour. Goswami is the second winner of this award after former Australia captain Karen Rolton to the prize last year.
For the Women’s Cricketer of the Year, each ICC Member that played international cricket during the voting period was eligible to nominate two players.
The resultant list was then voted upon by an academy of 17 leading former players and influential figures in the women’s game including members of the media.
The trophy, produced by Swarovski, features a crystal cricket ball studded with over 4,200 Swarovski crystal chantons, cusped in a hand which extends from an aluminium base. The hand represents the theme of “breaking through” in pursuit of excellence.
The trophy features a crystal ball, weighs 1.2kg, is 30cm high and 11cm in width.