Taking a welcome break from the age old trend of crowning batsmen as "ICC Cricketer Of the Year"; the powers that be bestowed this prestigious honour on Australian speedster Mitchell Johnson for his sterling exploits with the ball during the 2013-14 cricketing season.........
33 year old Mitchell Johnson not only annexed the top individual honour in the ICC's Annual Awards Jamboree but also crowned his heady achievements by walking away with the much coveted "Test Cricketer Of The Year Award" for the year 2014.........
Mitchell Johnson set the cricketing stage aflame by garnering 59 wickets at 15.23 apiece during the voting period which ran between August 26, 2013 and September 17,2014 thereby enabling his much maligned Australian side whitewash or then swamp the English Lions by a whopping 5-0 margin in the iconic Ashes series as well as ensuring that his side ended up on the winning side in a bilateral series with the marauding South Africans......
Johnson who also annexed these awards way back in 2009 thereby ended up becoming the second individual to win both these hallowed awards twice with his former captain and mate Ricky Ponting being the first individual cricketer to have done so,,,,,,,,,
Graciously acknowledging the twin honours bestowed on him; Johnson who was turning his arm over in an ODI match at Perth against the visiting South African side said that "Aggressive and in your face fast or pace bowlers are indeed a fast vanishing breed and it's indeed nice to keep the age old trend of the stereotypical "ugly" fast bowler alive and kicking; more importantly, I feel blessed to be able to consistently contribute to the Aussie cause and achieve the targets that I had set for myself at the beginning of the Australian cricketing season"...........
Continuing in this merry vein; Johnson further added that it all ultimately boiled or narrowed down to his attitude; self belief and tonnes of confidence that he had always had in his own abilities; "I am more than happy to be in the space I am occupying at the present time and will stretch every sinew in an effort to constantly better my worth as a bowler who led his proud nation to victory as often as possible"...........
"I would like to go down in history as one of the finest fast bowling talents produced by this great sporting nation a la Dennis Lillee; Geoff Thomson; Brett Lee and Glenn Mcgrath and will persevere as long as I am able to keep both my body and mind in optimum shape", Johnson signed off.......
Other previous winners of these awards instituted in the year 2004 include such cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar; Kumar Sangakkara and present Aussie skipper Michael Clarke to name just a few.......
South African ODI captain AB De Villiers was voted the "ODI player of the year 2014" and English wicket keeper bats woman Sarah Taylor was conferred with the "Women's Player of the Year" award.........
33 year old Mitchell Johnson not only annexed the top individual honour in the ICC's Annual Awards Jamboree but also crowned his heady achievements by walking away with the much coveted "Test Cricketer Of The Year Award" for the year 2014.........
Mitchell Johnson set the cricketing stage aflame by garnering 59 wickets at 15.23 apiece during the voting period which ran between August 26, 2013 and September 17,2014 thereby enabling his much maligned Australian side whitewash or then swamp the English Lions by a whopping 5-0 margin in the iconic Ashes series as well as ensuring that his side ended up on the winning side in a bilateral series with the marauding South Africans......
Johnson who also annexed these awards way back in 2009 thereby ended up becoming the second individual to win both these hallowed awards twice with his former captain and mate Ricky Ponting being the first individual cricketer to have done so,,,,,,,,,
Graciously acknowledging the twin honours bestowed on him; Johnson who was turning his arm over in an ODI match at Perth against the visiting South African side said that "Aggressive and in your face fast or pace bowlers are indeed a fast vanishing breed and it's indeed nice to keep the age old trend of the stereotypical "ugly" fast bowler alive and kicking; more importantly, I feel blessed to be able to consistently contribute to the Aussie cause and achieve the targets that I had set for myself at the beginning of the Australian cricketing season"...........
Continuing in this merry vein; Johnson further added that it all ultimately boiled or narrowed down to his attitude; self belief and tonnes of confidence that he had always had in his own abilities; "I am more than happy to be in the space I am occupying at the present time and will stretch every sinew in an effort to constantly better my worth as a bowler who led his proud nation to victory as often as possible"...........
"I would like to go down in history as one of the finest fast bowling talents produced by this great sporting nation a la Dennis Lillee; Geoff Thomson; Brett Lee and Glenn Mcgrath and will persevere as long as I am able to keep both my body and mind in optimum shape", Johnson signed off.......
Other previous winners of these awards instituted in the year 2004 include such cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar; Kumar Sangakkara and present Aussie skipper Michael Clarke to name just a few.......
South African ODI captain AB De Villiers was voted the "ODI player of the year 2014" and English wicket keeper bats woman Sarah Taylor was conferred with the "Women's Player of the Year" award.........
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