Ravinda becomes youngest winner in the NZ Cricket award’s history

Rachin Ravindra has added another accolade to his quickly growing list of accomplishments, named as the Sir Richard Hadlee medallist to acknowledge New Zealand’s best men’s cricketer.

At 24, Ravindra is the youngest winner in the award’s history, after a season that’s seen him become a mainstay of New Zealand’s red and white ball sides.

After breaking into the side at last year’s Cricket World Cup in India, Ravindra didn’t take a backwards step, and scored 578 runs at an average of 64, including three centuries.

As a result, Ravindra was named as the ICC’s Emerging Player of the Year for 2023, and also secured a $350,000 Indian Premier League contract with Chennai Super Kings.

In test cricket, the all-rounder broke back into New Zealand’s side, after an indifferent start to his career, albeit batting at No.7.

Moving up the order to No.4, Ravindra scored 446 runs at an average of 55.75 over New Zealand’s home summer, in a series win over South Africa and loss to Australia.

The series win over the Proteas, notably victory at Mt Maunganui’s Bay Oval, was built on the back of Ravindra’s maiden test century, which he converted into his first international double-hundred, 240. To go with his runs, Ravindra also took seven wickets at 20.42.

In the women’s game, Amelia Kerr was named as the Debbie Hockley medallist, in recognition of New Zealand’s top female cricketer, with a clean sweep of the top women’s prizes.

Kerr, 23, led the way for the White Ferns with the bat in One Day Internationals over the course of the season, and scored 541 runs at 67, including centuries against Sri Lanka and South Africa respectively.

At domestic level, Kerr also captained the Wellington Blaze to the women’s Super Smash title, and became the first player in the history of the competition to take successive five-wicket hauls.

All up, Kerr claimed an astonishing 20 wickets at an average of just eight, as well as leading the run-scoring charts with 437 at 72.

Kane Williamson was named as New Zealand’s test player of the year, after he scored 619 runs at an average of 56.

Those numbers include four centuries in six matches, reaching three figures against Bangladesh, and three times in two tests against South Africa.

Overall, Williamson has scored 32 test centuries, the most among active cricketers.

Matt Henry was named as New Zealand’s first-class bowler of the year, after a home summer of 23 wickets in four tests.

Despite finishing on the losing side, Henry was named as the player of the series in the Blackcaps’ 0-2 loss to Australia, with 17 wickets at 15.70, including a haul of 7/67 in Christchurch.

In white ball cricket, Daryl Mitchell was named as the men’s One Day International player of the year, after his World Cup campaign yielded 552 runs at 69, including two centuries against hosts India.

Those performances saw Mitchell earn a $2.7 million Indian Premier League contract, also joining Chennai.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission