Colombo, Sept 15 (IBNS) Up-and-coming West Indies bowler Sunil Narine has been named as the Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2012 at the LG ICC Awards in Colombo.
The 24-year-old from Trinidad, follows in the footsteps of last year’s winner and fellow West Indies bowler, Devendra Bishoo, in claiming the award. The off-spinner played in three Tests for the West Indies claiming 12 wickets at an average 31.50, while in the 15 ODIs he played in he claimed 28 wickets at an average of 18.82.
Narine was the top choice of the 32-person voting academy, coming out ahead of Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal, Doug Bracewell of New Zealand and Australia’s James Pattinson.
In Sri Lanka as part of the West Indies ICC World Twenty20 squad, he said upon receiving the award: “We’ve a good junior set-up so hopefully the awards keep coming for us. I think this has been the best 12 months for me and I just keep adapting the best as possible. Hopefully I can keep going the best I can and keep competing for the West Indies.
“I need to digest this and this one step at time and enjoy every minute that I play. This award means a lot for me and it’s an encouragement to keep going and continue to improve.
"I dedicate this award to my father who kept pushing me, who took me to the Queen’s Park Oval regularly and told me I would have my moment and I’d like to thank him for his help and all my family who support me.”
The ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year Award was one of the 11 individual prizes given at this year’s LG ICC Awards.
Players eligible for this award must be under 26 years of age at the start of the voting period (4 August 2011) and have played no more than five Test matches and/or 10 ODIs before the start of the voting period.
Previous winners of this award include Irfan Pathan (2004), Kevin Pietersen (2005), Ian Bell (2006). Shaun Tait (2007), Ajantha Mendis (2008), Peter Siddle (2009), Steven Finn (2010) and Devendra Bishoo (2011).
