Nitschke named Women's Cricketer of the Year

Shelley Nitschke, the Australia allrounder, has been named the Women's Cricketer of the Year at the ICC Awards in Bangalore. In the eight ODIs she played during the period under consideration - August 24, 2009 to August 10, 2010 - Nitschke scored 342 runs at an average of 57, and took 12 wickets. She also played in 10 Twenty20 Internationals, scoring 265 runs and taking ten wickets.

Nitschke won the award ahead of team-mate Ellyse Perry, West Indies' Stafanie Taylor and England's Katherine Brunt. She was also part of the victorious Australian women's side in the ICC World Twenty20 earlier this year.

Accepting the award from Australia batsman Michael Hussey, Nitschke said: "This year has been fantastic and to cap the year off with winning the ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year is brilliant. A huge part of increasing people's following of us has been our playing double-header matches with the men's sides, and to be playing Twenty20 cricket on a global stage has also helped us immensely."

There was another special honour for women's cricket, as former England batsman Rachael Heyhoe-Flint became the first woman to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.