New Delhi :
Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have headlined the ICC Awards for the year 2019 which were announced on Wednesday.While Rohit has been adjudged the 2019 ODI Cricketer of the Year, Kohli was awarded the 2019 Spirit of Cricket award for his heartwarming gesture asking fans not to boo Steve Smith during the World Cup 2019.
Still the biggest ICC prize was reserved for England all-rounder Ben Stokes with the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the world player of the year. Australia fast bowler Pat Cum mins won the 2019 Test Cricketer ofthe Year award for his 59 Test wickets.
Rohit Sharma was in sensational form in 2019. Earlier in the year, he became the first batsman to hit 5 hundreds in a single edition of the World Cup and finished the tournament as the highest run-scorer. He finished the year with 7 ODI hundreds.
Earlier in 2019, India's high-scoring clash vs Australia in the World Cup 2019 won many hearts when Kohli asked fans to clap Steve Smith instead of booing hin for serving a ban for ball-tampering.
Steve Smith along with David Warner had been banned for a year for their role in the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in 2018. In England, both Smith and Warner have faced a tough time from crowds. On Sunday,while Smith was fielding near the boundary, a few fans booed and jeered at him.
Virat Kohli, who was batting at that moment, asked the crowd to stop the booing and instead applaud Steve Smith.
What do you make of our ODI Team of the Year?#ICC Awardspic.twitter.com/xYPtkmigBc
ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2020
Speaking to the media after the match, Virat Kohli said heeven apologised to Steve Smith on behalf of the crowd."Just becausethere's so many Indian fans here, I just didn't want them to set a bad example,to be honest, because he didn't do anything to be booed in my opinion.
"He's just playing cricket. He was just standing there,and I felt bad because if I was in a position where something had happened withme and I had apologised, I accepted it and I came back and still I would getbooed, I wouldn't like it, either.
"So I just felt for him, and I told him, I'm sorry onbehalf of the crowd because I've seen that happen in a few earlier games, aswell, and in my opinion that's not acceptable," Kohli said.