AFP, Johannesburg :
Just over a day after being passed over for his country’s Test captaincy, AB de Villiers was named South African Cricketer of the Year on Wednesday night.
De Villiers edged out four other candidates, including new Test captain Hashim Amla, for the top award. The other nominees were fast bowler Dale Steyn, batsman JP Duminy and rising prodigy Quinton de Kock.
De Villiers also collected the award for Test Cricketer of the Year.
It was the first time De Villiers, 30, had won the top award. Amla was the winner in 2013.
De Villiers was in prolific run-scoring form during the year which started in June 2013. He was South Africa’s leading run-scorer in Tests, in which he scored 804 runs at an average of 67.00, and one- day internationals, in which he hit 789 runs at an average of 43.83 with a strike rate of 99.24.
De Villiers was pipped for the first time in six years for the One- Day International Cricketer of the Year award, which went to De Kock, who hit three centuries in successive matches against India and racked up 664 runs at an average of 55.33.
Leg-spinner Imran Tahir was named Twenty20 International Cricketer of the Year. He was South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the shortest form of the game and starred in the World T20 in Bangladesh, taking 12 wickets at an average of 10.91.
