Image courtesy of: icricketbuzz.com
Samuels led the West Indies to victory at the World Twenty20 last October
West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels has been named as the West Indies’ Overall and ODI player of the year for 2012 at a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and West Indies Players Association award ceremony in Trinidad.
Veteran batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul was presented with the Test Player of the Year award, while Stefanie Taylor, 22, won the Women’s Cricketer of the Year award.
During the ceremony, WICB president Dave Cameron presented gold rings to the 15 players and eight management staff that brought home the World Twenty20 trophy last October.
“This is a truly special honour – one that all of us will cherish,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. “On behalf of the team I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who came up with this idea and all those who made it possible.
“We played an amazing brand of cricket to win over in Sri Lanka; to win the trophy for our people. Now it feels really great to be honoured, in this way, here at home.”
Spinner Sunil Narine won two awards – the T20 Player of the Year and Regional Limited-Overs Player of the Year – at the ceremony, while opening batsman Kieran Powell was named as the Emerging Player of the Year.
Jamaica was voted the First-Class Team of the Year and one of its players, left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, bagged the First-Class Player of the Year award.
Barbados was named as the Under-19 Team of the Year and Trinidad and Tobago’s Jeremy Solozano claimed the Under-19 Player of the Year award.
The Caribbean T20 Player of the Year award went to Jamaica’s Krishmar Santokie.
Former West Indies wicketkeeper Jackie Hendriks was bestowed with the WICB Lifetime Achievement Award, while the West Indies Players Association award went to Winston Reid, who claimed 205 wickets for Barbados in a career spanning 15 years.