Winning ICC award was a “shocker” says Taylor

BRIGHTON, England – Stafanie Taylor said she was stunned to be named the ICC Women’s One-day International Player-of-the-Year.

 

Taylor took the accolade ahead of West Indies Women’s team-mate Anisa Mohammed, and current opponents Lydia Greenway and Sarah Taylor of England at the LG ICC Awards staged in the Sri Lanka capital of Colombo on Saturday.

"It was quite a shocker," she told WICB Media. "I expected to win the Twenty20 Player-of-the-Year award, rather than ODI Player-of-the-Year.

"But I am very appreciative and it shows all the hard work that I have been putting into my game is bearing fruit."

Based on the voting period between August 4 last year and August 6 this year, the 21-year-old Taylor played in 13 ODIs for Windies Women, scoring 514 runs at the top of the order at an average of 46.72. Her steady off-spin also claimed 16 wickets at 13.12 apiece.

"I thought there were other players, like India’s Mithali Raj, who had better stats for the last year than I did," she said.

"I thought I had better T20 stats, so I expected to have a better chance at winning the T20 Player-of-the-Year award."

The award brought to a close a memorable period for Taylor. She was part of the West Indies Women’s side that won the ICC Women’s World Cup qualifier last November in Bangladesh, the side finishing undefeated.

Last month, she also led her native Jamaica to the Regional Women’s Twenty20 title, earning the Most Valuable Player of the tournament award.

"This [ICC award] will help to keep me going," she said. "It is something that I will be able to look towards for motivation over the coming year.

"It will help me to want to do better than what I did the previous year."

Looking back over the past year, Taylor said she still felt there was room for improvement.

"I’m still not where I wanted," she said. "I wanted to be in a better position, so I am trying to improve in all areas. It’s been slow going, but I hope to get there soon."

Taylor was unable to attend the awards ceremony due to playing commitments in England with the Windies Women’s team in preparation for the ICC Women’s World T20 in Sri Lanka later this month.