Faf Du Plessis, Dane van Niekerk become \'South African Cricketer of the Year\'

Johannesburg: Faf Du Plessis and Dane van Niekerk were named South African Cricketer of the Year in their respective categories at a glittering Cricket South Africa (CSA) awards function at Pretoria on Saturday.

Proteas all format skipper Plessis became the 11th player to win the award. The other 10 players who have received CSA's most prestigious men's award are Jacques Kallis (2004 and 2011), Makhaya Ntini (2005 and 2006), Hashim Amla (2010 and 2013), AB de Villiers (2014 and 2015) and Kagiso Rabada (2016 and 2018), who have all won the award twice with the other previous winners being Shaun Pollock (2007), Dale Steyn (2008), Graeme Smith (2009), Vernon Philander (2012) and Quinton de Kock (2017).

Du Plessis was also named as the ODI Cricketer of the Year as well as being honoured by SA Players' Player of the Year.

Quinton de Kock was named Test Cricketer of the Year and David Miller as T20 International Cricketer of the Year while Rabada was honoured by the fans on being named SA Fans Player of the Year. The CSA Delivery of the Year went to Vernon Philander for his dismissal of Azhar Ali of Pakistan in the third Castle Lager Test match.

Dale Steyn was honoured with the Streetwise Award for his achievement in becoming South Africa's leading Test match wicket-taker and one of the top 10 on the all-time list.

The International Newcomer of the Year award went to Rassie van der Dussen, who had an outstanding average of 73 and strike rate of 81 in ODIs. He had a strike rate of 133 in T20 Internationals in his debut season. These figures included an average of 62 and a strike rate of 90 in his maiden appearance at the ICC Cricket World Cup.

The other top awards in the women's category awarded to Marizanne Kapp who was named ODI Player of the Year and Shabnim Ismail who was named T20 International Player of the Year. Tumi Sekhukhune was named International Women's Newcomer of the Year.

Shaun George was named CSA Umpire of the Year for the third year in a row and the CSA Umpires' Umpire of the Year went to Bongani Jele.