The International Cricket Council revealed in two consecutive social media posts across all platforms that India’s Smriti Mandhana and Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi are crowned the ICC Women’s and Men’s cricketers of the year for 2021 respectively.
While Mandhana defeated tough competitors in form of England’s Tammy Beaumont, Ireland’s Gaby Lewis and South Africa’s Lizelle Lee to grab the most revered Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Afridi competed against the likes of England skipper Joe Root, World Test Championship winning captain Kane Williamson and compatriot Mohammad Rizwan to win a tightly contested battle for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy.
Afridi, who took 78 wickets in 36 international matches throughout the year with the best figures of 6/51 and at an average of 22.00, said that he was thrilled to be bestowed upon such a great honour at such a young age.
"My only endeavour was to try and perform as best as possible for my nation and in 2021 Pakistan did in all formats," said the Afridi. "The current team gels together and finds joy in each other's performances. But the most memorable match this year for me would remain the T20 World Cup encounter against India. It was a historical game and I was happy to have performed so well in it," the 22-year-old added.
While Afridi is the fourth Pakistani to have won an ICC award this year after Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam and Sana Fatima, Mandhana on the other hand, is the lone India representative at the annual cricketing honours.
Through the year in 2021, the 25-year-old scored 855 runs in 22 internationals at an average of 38.86 with one century which came in a historic Test against Australia Women and five half-centuries that came against Australia, England and South Africa across formats.