Kamindu Mendis & Chamari Athapaththu bag the Biggest Honors at Sri Lanka Cricket Awards 2024

As Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) held its awards night on Monday, Kamindu Mendis and Chamari Athapaththu were named the men's and women's cricketers of the year, respectively, earning them the biggest prizes of the evening. The SLC awards, nominally an annual event, was being held for the first time since 2017, and feted those who had contributed to Sri Lankan cricket for the 2024 calendar year. Unexpectedly, Kamindu's record-breaking year made him the best Test batsman. Over the 12-month period in question, he scored 1049 runs at 74.92, easily beating Dinesh Chandimal's 724. Only four batters, Joe Root, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ben Duckett, and Harry Brook, batted better internationally during this time period than Kamindu, but none played as few Tests as his nine, the next lowest being 12. Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka shared the two men's white-ball best batter awards. Mendis won the T20I award with 628 runs at a strike rate of 127.64, beating Nissanka's 622 runs at 138.53. Nissanka won the ODI award with 694 runs at an average of 63.09, beating Kusal's 742 runs at 53.00. Nissanka also became the first Sri Lankan to score a white-ball double-hundred in this period, when he took apart Afghanistan during an unbeaten 210 off 139 in February 2024. Athapaththu, on the other hand, was the night's biggest winner, winning six awards, including women's cricketer of the year. In a year in which she scored 720 runs (second only to Smriti Mandhana) and took 21 wickets in T20Is, she won the batting, bowling, and all-rounder awards. She was also named the best batter and all-rounder in ODIs thanks to her 458 runs at 65.42 and nine wickets in the same game. Only Kavisha Dilhari's 17 wickets across eight ODIs - earning her the best ODI bowler award - prevented an Athapaththu clean sweep. The awards for men were more diverse. In Tests, Prabath Jayasuriya was named best bowler for his 48 wickets across nine Tests, making him the joint-fourth highest wicket-taker in Tests for the calendar year. He prevailed over Asitha Fernando, who had 37 wickets during that time. Dhananjaya de Silva won the award for best all-rounder in ten Tests for his 710 runs and six wickets, but he only faced competition from Milan Rathnayake, who had only played four Tests. Wanindu Hasaranga won three awards in the white-ball category. He won the best bowler award in both T20Is and ODIs with 38 and 26 wickets, respectively, and he won the best T20I allrounder award with 179 runs in T20Is. Men's national team captain Charith Asalanka won the award for best allrounder in one-day internationals. His 605 runs at a rate of 50.41 were only beaten by Kusal and Nissanka. He also played a crucial role in Sri Lanka's 12-3 win-loss record in the format with ten wickets at a rate of 4.78, just behind Maheesh Theekshana. Janith Liyanage, who made his ODI debut in January 2024, was named emerging player of the year after an impressive year in which he helped strengthen Sri Lanka's middle order by scoring 462 runs at 46.20. During the ceremony, 46 awards were given out, including several lifetime achievement awards and match referee and umpire of the year awards to Pradeep Jeyapragash and Chamara de Zoysa, respectively.