ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year
The International Cricket Council Women's Cricketer of the Year is an award given annually as part of the ICC Awards ceremony. Although the awards were first held in 2004, the first women's award was made in 2006. Karen Rolton, the inaugural winner of the award commented that it was "great for women's cricket... that the ICC has included a women's award this year".
The award is based upon the players' performances in the voting period, typically from August for a year. Prior to 2009, each of the top 10 women's national teams nominated two players and the final selection was made by a 16-person panel. Since 2009, a long list has been chosen by the ICC Awards voting panel, consisting of cricket administrators, journalists and former players. This is then trimmed to create a short list by a different, 25-person, board.
Between 2006 and 2011, it ran as a single category award. From 2012 onwards, it was separated into two categories and an overall Women's Player of the Year category was reintroduced in 2017, in addition to these two awards.
In the time that the award has been presented, it has been won by 9 different players. Stafanie Taylor and Sarah Taylor have won it three times each and Meg Lanning twice, making them the only multiple recipients of the awards. Stafanie Taylor has been short listed 9 times the most by any player. Lisa Sthalekar has been short listed on the most occasions without winning the award. In total, 22 players have been nominated from 6 different teams. Jhulan Goswami, Stafanie Taylor and Suzie Bates are the only winners not to play for either Australia or England, representing India, the West Indies and New Zealand respectively.
Winners
- In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than the voting period. Each year links to the corresponding "year in cricket" article.
- ODI refers to Women's One Day International cricket.
- The Ref column provides the references for that row of the table.
| Year | Winner | Team | Short listed | Rationale | Ref |
| 2006 | Rolton recorded a batting average of just under 50.00 during the voting period, scoring totals of 71 and 97 runs in the second Ashes Test against England in August 2005. She also claimed her best one-day bowling figures, taking 4 wickets for 29 runs, and was awarded her 100th ODI cap for Australia. | ||||
| 2007 | Goswami had a bowling average below 22 in both Test and ODI cricket; 12.40 and 21.80 respectively, and consistently bowled accurately to maintain a low economy rate. She was particularly effective in a Test match against England in which she took 5 wickets for 33 runs. She also scored her highest total in international cricket of 69 in the voting period. | ||||
| 2008 | During the voting period, Edwards scored 492 runs at an average of 54.66 and took 15 wickets at 19.03 for England in ODI cricket. She also scored 94 and 14 not out in her only Test appearance, and captained England during a summer in which they remained unbeaten. | ||||
| 2009 | In 18 ODIs during the voting period, Taylor scored 565 runs at an average of 70.62, and in Twenty20 cricket averaged 115.00 for her 230 runs. She was named Player of the Tournament at both the Women's World Cup and the Women's World Twenty20, each of which England won. | ||||
| 2010 | Nitschke scored 342 runs at an average of 57.00 in 8 ODIs during the voting period, and also claimed 12 wickets. In 10 Twenty20 matches, she scored a further 265 runs and took 10 wickets, and was part of the winning Australian team at the Women's World Twenty20. | ||||
| 2011 | Taylor scored 610 runs in 10 ODIs during the voting period, at an average of 76.25, and also claimed 15 wickets. She also scored 49 runs and took 5 wickets in Twenty20 matches. She was part of the West Indies team which won the Women's Twenty20 Cricket Challenge. |
| Year | Winner | Team | Short listed | Rationale | Ref |
| 2017 | |||||
| 2018 | |||||
| 2019 |
| Year | Winner | Team | Short listed | Rationale | Ref |
| 2012 |
| In 13 ODI matches played during the award qualifying period, Taylor scored 514 runs at an average of 46.72, and additionally took 16 wickets with her off-spin at an average of 13.12. | |||
| 2013 | During the award qualifying period, Bates was the top scorer with 681 runs in 11 matches at an average of 75.66, scoring two centuries and 5 half-centuries in the process. She was also the top scorer of the 2013 Women's Cricket World Cup. | ||||
| 2014 | During the award qualifying period, Taylor was the top scorer with 361 runs in 12 matches at an average of 40.11. She also helped England win the 2013–14 Women's Ashes. | ||||
| 2015 | During the award qualifying period, Lanning was the top scorer with 531 runs in 7 matches at an average of 88.50, scoring two centuries and 3 half-centuries in the process. She also helped Australia win the 2015 Women's Ashes. | ||||
| 2016 | |||||
| 2017 | |||||
| 2018 | |||||
| 2019 |
| Year | Winner | Team | Short listed | Rationale | Ref |
| 2012 |
| In 10 T20I matches played during the qualifying period, Taylor scored 340 runs at an average of 48.57, and additionally claimed 7 stumpings and 4 catches as a wicket-keeper. | |||
| 2013 | During the award qualifying period, Taylor was the top scorer with 422 runs in 13 matches at an average of 42.20, scoring 3 half-centuries. She also helped England win the 2013 Women's Ashes. | ||||
| 2014 | During the award qualifying period, Lanning scored 594 runs in 16 matches at an average of 49.50, apart from scoring 3 half-centuries she was the only player to score a century, becoming just the third player to score a century in women's T20Is. | ||||
| 2015 | During the award qualifying period, Taylor was the top scorer with 340 runs in 9 matches at an average of 42.50, scoring 3 half-centuries. | ||||
| 2016 | |||||
| 2017 | |||||
| 2018 | |||||
| 2019 |