4 hours Ago By Mid-day
Team 's lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the men's category and premier batswoman Smirti Mandhana in the women's category were awarded the best international cricketers at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Awards 2025, according to the Olympics.com. The BCCI Awards first started in the year 2006-07 and is an annual felicitation ceremony for the country's top players from the previous years.
It also bestows other honours like Lifetime Achievement awards to select individuals each year. The Best International Cricketer of the Year (men) is also called the Polly Umrigar Award after the legendary Indian cricket and the Best International Cricketer of the Year (women) are the top awards of the event. Apart from BCCI's Best International Cricketer of the Year (men) award, Jasprit Bumrah also claimed the Best Men's Test Cricketer of the Year as well as the overall Best Men's Cricketer of the Year honours at this year's ICC Awards.
Jasprit Bumrah enjoyed an incredible year with the ball. His 15 wickets and decisive match-winning spells were instrumental in India winning the T20 World Cup after 17 years and the Indian speedster was named the Player of the Tournament. In Tests, he finished 2024 as the highest wicket-taker with 71 scalps in 13 matches.
Only Kapil Dev has scalped more wickets for India in red-ball cricket in a single calendar year. Jasprit Bumrah has now won the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award three times, having bagged the honour previously in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons. Virat Kohli is the one and only player to win the award several times which is five, while and Ravichandran Ashwin have won it twice, each.
Shubman Gill won the award in the 2022-23 season. Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana picked up her third Best International Cricketer of the Year (women) award to add to her honours from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. Mandhana enjoyed a standout year, especially in ODIs, where she scored 747 runs at an average of 57.
46. She scored four ODI centuries in the calendar year, a new record in the women's game. The Indian ace was also awarded the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year earlier.
Sarfaraz Khan won the Best International Debut (men) award while Asha Sobhana bagged the women's variant. Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has been bestowed with the Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Master Blaster still holds the records for most runs scored in Test as well as ODI cricket..
