Cricket news - Williamson bags Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, Test player of the Year award

Kane Williamson became the first player in New Zealand's history to win the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal thrice, it was announced on Thursday (March 21). The award takes into consideration the performance in all three formats and is given to the best player of the year. Ross Taylor has won the award twice while Trent Boult and Brendon McCullum have been bestowed with the honour once since the award was introduced in 2010-11.

Williamson, also awarded the Test player of the year, led his side to five consecutive Test series wins - against Windies, Sri Lanka, England, Pakistan and Bangladesh - and also became the first player to score 20 Test centuries for the country. Since the start of 2018, Williamson scored 925 runs in nine Tests, 838 runs in 21 ODIs and 332 runs from 15 T20Is. He scored five centuries with three of them in the longest format. In the last five years, Williamson has won the Test player of the year award thrice with Boult winning it in 2017-18 and Neil Wagner winning the award for the 2016-17 season.

Ross Taylor was awarded the ODI Player of the Year while Colin Munro bagged the T20I Player of the Year for the second time running. Taylor scored 1232 runs since the start of 2018 with his average at 82.13 He also became the first New Zealand player to reach the landmark of 20 ODI centuries. Munro was the top-scorer for the Blackcaps in the last year with 634 runs from 16 T20Is at an average of 42.26 and a strike rate of 176.60. He scored one century and five half-centuries during that period.

Sophie Devine was awarded the Women's T20I player of the year for the second consecutive year while Amelia Kerr was adjudged the Women's ODI player of the year. Devine scored 626 runs in the 19 T20Is she played in addition to bagging 21 wickets at a bowling average of 18.66. In the 14 ODIs Kerr featured in, she accumulated 422 runs at a more than impressive average of 52.75 while her 21 wickets came at an average of 23.33. She also won the women's domestic batting performance of the year.

Chris Brown was awarded the umpire of the year award while Trent Boult won the first-class bowling performance of the year.