Philander is South African Cricketer of the Year

All-rounder Vernon Philander swept Cricket South Africa's Gala Awards, bagging three top awards, including the 'Cricketer of the Year' honour at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

Philander was also named the 'Test Cricketer of the Year' and to put an extra cherry on the top, he also won in the national popularity stakes by fans who made him CSA Fans' Cricketer of the Year with their online votes.

By being named South African Cricketer of the Year, the 26-year-old joins the elite company of Jacques Kallis (twice), Makhaya Ntini (twice), Shaun Pollock, Dale Steyn, Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla who are previous winners of South Africa's most prestigious cricketing award.

There were two dual international winners on the night.

AB de Villiers was named One-Day International Cricketer of the Year and SA Players' Player of the Year, and Richard Levi, was named CSA International T20 Cricketer of the Year and also bagged the KFC "So Good" Award for his world record century against New Zealand in the same format.The other international award went to Marchant de Lange, who took 7/81 on his Test match debut against Sri Lanka and also bowled a memorable final over to take 2/2 and clinch the T20 series against New Zealand.

In the domestic professional category the three main awards went to Dean Elgar (CSA 1-Day Cup Cricketer of the Year), Farhaan Behardien (MiWay T20 Cricketer of the Year) and Alviro Petersen (SuperSport Series Cricketer of the Year).

Morne van Wyk and Faf du Plessis were recognised by their peers to be named South African Cricketers' Association Most Valuable Player and Domestic Players' Player of the Year respectively.

"The performances of our cricketers remain at an all-time high," said CSA Acting chief executive Jacques Faul.

"You only have to look at the number of our Proteas who have held the No.1 position on the official ICC rankings list for the past 12 months in the various formats. This list includes Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

"The Proteas players have also performed outstandingly well at the latest edition of the Indian Premier League where Morne Morkel was the leading wicket-taker and Faf du Plessis one of the leading runs scorers.

Philander took 51 wickets in his first seven Test matches -- the second quickest performance of all time and the first time this has been achieved in nearly 120 years on pitches that were far more conducive to good batting performances than was the case 100 years ago.

"Richard Levi won two awards while Marchant de Lange's debut Test performance as well as his heroics in only his second T20 International was quite exceptional," Faul said.

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