Tim Southee, Sophie Devine Voted New Zealand's Best Cricketers Of 2019/20

Tim Southee and Sophie Devine have been declared the winners of their respective ‘Player’s Player’ award by the New Zealand Cricket Players Association. The award is voted upon after each match by both coaches and teammates on a ‘one, two, three’ points-based system over a 12-month period of international play.

This is the second time Tim Southee has won the award. He previously received the Players’ Cap in 2013. The right-arm pacer joins captain Kane Williamson (2015-2017) and Ross Taylor (2014, 2019) as players to have won the award more than once.

The New Zealand pace spearhead beat stiff competitions from his teammates as he scooped the prize for his consistent displays across all the three formats. Tim Southee was awarded the most votes as New Zealand’s T20 International player of the season, as well as the leading vote collector for the recently concluded home series against India.

In other formats, pacer Neil Wagner topped the votes as New Zealand’s Test player of the season, while pacer Lockie Ferguson was named as the ODI player of the year after finishing with the second most number of wickets at the 2019 World Cup in England.

In women’s cricket, Devine won her third Players’ Award in a row. Earlier this year, Devine took charge of the New Zealand side. She was named as the team’s best in the T20 International format, as well as New Zealand’s best player in South Africa’s tour of New Zealand.

During the 2019/20 season, Devine scored 429 runs at an average of 71.50 in eight games. She also took seven wickets at an average of 21.14. Suzie Bates was voted as the team’s best in the ODI format, while Haley Jensen led the votes for the best player at the T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year.

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