AB de Villiers wins ODI Player of the Year

South Africa?s AB de Villiers has won the ODI Player of the Year award at the LG ICC Awards in Bengaluru.

De Villiers beat off tough competition from India?s Sachin Tendulkar and the Australia duo of Shane Watson and Ryan Harris to take the prestigious award.

During the voting period, de Villiers played 16 ODIs and scored 855 runs at an average of 71.25 and at a rate of 103.38 runs per 100 balls faced. In that time he hit four 50s and four centuries making sure he led his team from the front when it came to batting.

Also in that time, de Villiers kept wicket four times for the Proteas where he played a hand in five dismissals and helped his side to victory in 10 of the 16 matches in which he played. He is currently ranked number one in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, comfortably ahead of the next best.

On receiving his first ever ICC award de Villiers said: ?I?ve really enjoyed this season and it?s great to have been named the ODI Cricketer of the Year.

?It?s a World Cup season and a World Cup is something we would love to win and we rate our chances pretty highly?.

De Villiers also features in the ODI Team of the Year and is the only South African in the side selected by the expert five-man panel.

The panel was chaired by West Indies legend Clive Lloyd and included former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden, former England bowler Angus Fraser, former Zimbabwe player and England coach Duncan Fletcher and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri.
Based on the period between 24 August 2009 and 10 August 2010, the LG ICC Awards 2010 ? presented in association with FICA ? take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

For all the individual awards (with the exceptions of the Women?s Cricketer of the Year and the Umpire of the Year), a long-list compiled by the selection panel was forwarded to the 25-person Voting Academy made up of former players, respected members of the media, an elite umpire and an elite match referee. They voted on a three, two, one basis (with three being the highest value) and the winners emerged.