Uganda's Alpesh Ramjani among ICC T20I Player of the Year nominees

In a year when they qualified for the T20 World Cup and won the ACA (African Cricket Association) T20, Uganda were bound to have someone among the nominees for ICC awards.

Left-arm spinner Alpesh Ramjani turned out to be that person as the International Cricket Council (ICC) nominated him for Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year Award.

The 29-year-old took 55 wickets at an average of 8.98 and economy rate of 4.77.

“2023 was a storming year for Ugandan cricket, which was helped in no small part by Ramjani, who was both stellar with the ball and valuable with the bat,” said the ICC in a statement.

“Ramjani was a nightmare for batters with his left-arm orthodox, taking 55 wickets in his 30 outings, the most among men’s players in the format across the year. Ramjani struck every 11 balls for Uganda and only went wicketless on four occasions across the year,” the statement added.

Ramjani was also recognised by ICC for his batting.

“With the bat, Ramjani was more than capable, deployed in different positions in the order across the year. His knock of 40 from 26 against Zimbabwe at the Qualifier was the most crucial of his and arguably Uganda’s year, leading to a shock victory on their path to T20 World Cup Qualification,” the ICC further added in the statement.

Among the other nominees are India batsman Suryakumar Yadav, Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza and Mark Chapman of New Zealand.  

cricket, uganda, T20, ICC