Superstar Chris Gayle and West Indies white-ball captain, Kieron Pollard, have been named in the International Cricket Council’s Twenty20 Team-of-the-Decade.
In awards announced Monday by the sport’s world governing body, West Indies women’s captain, Stafanie Taylor, along with dynamic all-rounder, Deandra Dottin, were also included in the ICC Women’s T20I Team-of-the-Decade.
Taylor has also been good enough to be named in the Women’s One-Day International Team-of-the-decade, along with off-spinner and former vice-captain Anisa Mohammed.
No West Indies player was included in the Test Team-of-the-Decade or the men’s ODI Team-of-the-Decade.
Meanwhile, the ICC Cricketer-of-the-Decade award – aptly named after former West Indies captain and Barbados National Hero, Sir Garfield Sobers – was snapped up by Indian batting maestro and skipper Virat Kohli.
West Indies’ presence was felt in the men’s T20I side where Gayle and Pollard were included alongside the likes of Kohli, South African superstar AB de Villiers and Indian Rohit Sharma.
In the period under review beginning January 1, 2011, the left-handed Jamaican scored 1,010 at an average of 32 with a single hundred – 100 not out against England in the 2016 T20 World Cup in India.
Gayle, who has not featured for West Indies in 18 months, also boasts a career average of 32, having scored 1,627 runs with two hundreds.
Pollard, meanwhile, played 56 T20 Internationals in the period under review, scoring 1,036 runs at an average of 30 and taking 26 wickets with his slow-medium at an average of 23.
On the women’s side, Taylor has been rewarded for her consistency across both white-ball formats.
The 29-year-old has averaged nearly 44 from 95 ODIs during the award period, scoring 3 561 runs along with three of her five career hundreds, while snaring 106 of her 142 career wickets at an average of 22.
In T20s, Jamaican Taylor also impressed with an average of 35 in 90 appearances, taking 76 wickets with her off-spin.
Trinidadian Mohammed earned her place in the ICC side by taking 116 of her 151 wickets from 87 ODIs during the awards period, at just under 20 runs apiece.
Dottin, perhaps one of the most feared batsmen in either format, scored 2 149 runs at an average of 25 with one hundred – an astonishing 67-ball knock against Sri Lanka in Antigua three years ago.
The 29-year-old, who bowls brisk medium pace, snapped up 55 of her 61 career wickets at an average of 16.
CMC
