Smriti Manadhana of India has won the ICC Women Cricketer of the year 2021. She is the second woman player to win the award in the world. Ellyse Perry of Australia was the first woman player to win the award.

About the award

The ICC Women Cricketer of the year is presented as a part of the ICC Awards ceremony. The award was renamed as the Rachael Heyhoe Flint in 2017. Rachael Heyhoe Flint is a woman cricketer. She was the captain of the British cricket team between 1966 and 1978.

The award was introduced in 2006. It adjudges the best international cricketer based on their twelve month period performances. Between 2006 and 2011, the award was presented in a single category called “Women’s Player of the Year”. In 2017, separate categories were introduced for One Day and T20 cricket.

Smriti Mandhana

Smriti plays for the Indian cricket team. In 2018, she won the Rachael Heyhoe award for the best female cricketer. She was born in 1996 in a Marwari family. Her father and brother played cricket. She picked up her interest towards cricket from them. Mandhana entered the national team in 2017. She played for the world cup in 2017. In 2019, Smriti became the captain of the team. In 2019, she won the CEAT International Woman Cricketer award. She was the third fastest cricketer to score 2000 runs in WODI.

ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the year

Lizelle Lee of South Africa was named as the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the year, 2021. Lee’s average is 90.28. She had scored 632 runs in eleven matches. In March 2021, Lee played a crucial role in South Africa’s win against India. During the test series, Lee hit 288 runs that led the team to win against India. Lee was named as the Player of the series.