Aussies recognised as Cummins takes top men's gong

Pat Cummins has added another accolade to his impressive 2023 resume, today named the winner of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy as the ICC's men's Cricketer of the Year. 

Usman Khawaja was named the men's Test cricketer of the year, while rising star Phoebe Litchfield was named the women's emerging cricketer of the year. 

In 2023, a year that Cummins had expected to 'career-defining', he led Australia to their first World Test Championship title, retained the Ashes on English soil, steered Australia to the ODI World Cup crown against India, in India, and bookended the 12 months with success during home Test summers. 

While his Test captaincy was at times put under the microscope during the year, particularly during the Ashes series where Australia lost two of the final three Tests, Cummins was roundly lauded for his captaincy during the World Cup run. 

A brave decision to bowl first against home favourites India paid off in spades as Australia restricted the home side to 240 then romped to a six-wicket win seven overs in hand. 

In addition to showing his mettle as a leader, he demonstrated his class as a cricketer time and again in the Test arena. 

His performance at Edgbaston (38 and 44no, plus a devastating second-innings four-wicket spell with the ball) will go down in Ashes folklore after copping flak for having a deep point in place to start the series. 

And his 12no off 68 balls proved the perfect counterpoint to Glenn Maxwell's ODI double-century during that World Cup run. 

The 30-year-old finished the year with a stirring Johnny Mullagh medal-winning effort at the MCG against Pakistan with his second career 10-wicket haul. 

His return against Pakistan saw him finish with the second-best bowling average in a three-Test series in the history of the game, and of Australians to have taken 200 Test wickets, only Glenn McGrath has a better bowling average. None have a better strike-rate.

Cummins becomes the fifth Australian to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, and the first since Steve Smith in 2015

Australians to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy

2006 – Ricky Ponting

2007 – Ricky Ponting

2009 – Mitchell Johnson

2013 – Michael Clarke

2014 – Mitchell Johnson

2015 – Steve Smith

2023 – Pat Cummins

Khawaja was named Test Cricketer of the Year after a 12-month period that saw him score 1210 runs at 52.60, including three centuries.

He began 2023 with an unbeaten 195 in Sydney, where only the city's fickle early January weather robbed him of a maiden double-century. 

He scored 180 in Amedabad where Australia drew the fourth Test against India, but his 81 in Delhi and 60 in Indore in a Test Australia won underlined his growth as a Test batter, having been sidelined the entirety of his two previous tours there. 

Khawaja enjoyed a superb Ashes series with the bat, too, finishing as top run scorer for the series with 496 at 49.60 across his 10 innings. 

He struck 141 and 65 in the opening Ashes Test in Edgbaston and hit 77 at Lord's in Australian victories. He passed 40 at Leeds, and then hit 47 and 72 at The Oval, and had hit 123 runs more than Australia's next top run-scorer, Steve Smith.

Khawaja is the sixth Australian to win the Test Cricketer of the Year gong, and first since Cummins in 2019. 

Australians to be named ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Year

2006 – Ricky Ponting

2013 – Michael Clarke

2014 – Mitchell Johnson

2015 – Steve Smith

2017 – Steve Smith

2019 – Pat Cummins

2023 – Usman Khawaja

Rising star Phoebe Litchfield announced to the world what watchers of Australian domestic cricket had known for some time: she is a prodigious talent who looks set to dominate the world game for the next decade. 

At just 20 years of age, Litchfield made her debut for Australia in Test and ODI formats, having played her first T20 international in December 2022.

It was a breakout first year of ODI cricket for the 20-year-old from Orange, who hit back-to-back fifties against Pakistan on debut last January, then scored her first one-day hundred against Ireland in July.

He second ODI century at the dawn of the new year rewrote a stack of records against India in Mumbai over Christmas, having already scored 78 and 63 in the first two matches of the series before adding 119. 

At 20 years and 259 days, she became the youngest Aussie woman to make six ODI scores of fifty or more, reaching the mark younger than former skippers Meg Lanning and Belinda Clark. 

She finished that ODI series with 260 runs at 86.66 to become the first woman to hit three 50-plus scores in a three-game ODI series both against and in India.

Litchfield becomes the second Australian to win the women's emerging cricketer of the year award, after Beth Mooney in 2017.