Left-arm spinners Keshav Maharaj and Nonkululeko Mlaba walked away with the premier gongs at Cricket South Africa’s annual awards, edging a field dominated by World Cup performers and a couple of eye-catching newcomers.
The review window stretched from the 2024 men’s and women’s T20 World Cups through to this year’s Champions Trophy, but stopped short of the World Test Championship final that the Proteas clinched at Lord’s. In other words, Aiden Markram’s match-sealing century and Kagiso Rabada’s nine-for will only come under the microscope next season. Even so, Rabada did not leave empty-handed; his team-mates voted him their Men’s Player of the Year.
Maharaj’s argument was clear-cut. He claimed 40 Test wickets in seven outings between August and January, including twin four-fors against West Indies plus five-wicket bags in Chattogram and Gqeberha. On top of that, he finished as South Africa’s third-highest wicket-taker at the T20 World Cup. “It’s been a demanding 12 months but one of my most rewarding,” he said during a short, understated acceptance speech.
Mlaba matched that impact on the women’s side. Her 12 wickets in Bangladesh put her second on the tournament charts, only one behind New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr. A month later she became the first South African woman to take a ten-for in Test cricket, returning 10 for 157 against England at Centurion. Proteas bowling coach Dillon du Preez summed it up neatly: “She keeps things so simple, yet batters can’t pick her length or pace.”
Test accolades went to Temba Bavuma, whose two home hundreds – one against Sri Lanka in Durban and another versus Pakistan in Cape Town – booked South Africa’s place in that WTC final. “I still believe my best red-ball cricket is ahead of me,” Bavuma noted.
With the ODI schedule light, Heinrich Klaasen’s run-fest against Pakistan proved decisive in the 50-over category, while Anrich Nortje’s bursts through the middle overs at the T20 World Cup earned him the men’s T20 prize. Ottniel Baartman, miserly with the new ball all tournament, was recognised as the breakthrough name.
The domestic scene produced its own talking points. Lhuan-dre Pretorius reeled off three centuries in five matches, including a backs-to-the-wall ton in the four-day final, nudging ahead of run-machine Jordan Hermann. Veteran all-rounder Jon-Jon Smuts, evergreen in the one-day cup, was rewarded for consistency, and Kwena Maphaka shared the T20 Challenge wicket chart to grab the short-format trophy. Dewald Brevis, highly placed in both red-ball and 50-over lists, received the players’ vote.
Coaching recognition went to Russell Domingo, whose Lions completed a four-day and T20 double, and to Ahmed Amla for guiding KwaZulu-Natal Inland into the top tier.
On the women’s domestic front, Mlaba’s peers also voted her their standout performer, while Annerie Dercksen – hot off a maiden ODI hundred in Sri Lanka – secured the women’s 50-over prize. CSA chair Lawson Naidoo praised the winners as “role models who keep pushing the bar for South African cricket,” a sentiment hard to dispute after a season that asked plenty of its leading players and found most of them up to the task.
