White Ferns star Amelia Kerr was honoured by her team-mates as the recipient of the coveted CPA Players’ Award for 2022/23 in Christchurch on Monday evening.
This is Kerr’s second consecutive title and follows last year’s award, which at 21 years of age made her the youngest recipient of the CPA Players’ Award. Kerr now joins an exclusive club of players who have received the award multiple times, alongside Amy Satterthwaite (twice) and Sophie Devine (three times).
An emotional Kerr said “The CPA Players Award is special as it's voted by your teammates, the people you play for, and we have such an amazing group. To contribute on and off the field that's the most important thing for me when I wear that top. I love playing for the White Ferns so to receive this award and the recognition from your peers is a real honour.
Over the course of this voting period, the skilful all-rounder was steady with the bat and ball, featuring throughout the Commonwealth Games where the White Ferns secured a bronze medal, the ICC T20 World Cup and the series against Bangladesh and West indies.
White Ferns Captain and triple CPA Players’ Award recipient Sophie Devine was full of praise for her team-mate and fellow award winner. “It's the consistency that's really stood out for me and I'm sure that's why a lot of the players have voted for Amelia over this last 12-month period. Sometimes we forget how young she is, she's grown up in this team and to see her take on a new role, take the lead, the responsibility and really run with it, that’s something I've been really proud to see.”
The CPA Players’ Award recognises the contribution players make in every match, and comes with the knowledge of the strategies and key moments within each game. This year’s voting was close with a number of players in contention heading in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
The leading CPA Players’ Award vote recipients from each series during 2022/23 were
Comm Games Sophie Devine
West Indies Tour Fran Jonas
Bangladesh in NZ Melie Kerr
ICC T20 WC Melie Kerr
CPA Players’ Award recipients
2023: 8th - Amelia Kerr
2022: 7th - Amelia Kerr
2021: 6th - Amy Satterthwaite
2020: 5th - Sophie Devine
2019: 4th - Sophie Devine
2018: 3rd - Sophie Devine
2017: 2nd - Amy Satterthwaite
2016: 1st - Suzie Bates
About the CPA Players Award
The CPA Players’ Award is awarded to the most outstanding White Ferns Cricketer of the Year for performances in official International matches over the preceding 12-month period and shall be judged by the players, and coaching staff.
At the completion of each match, each player and coaching staff will cast their own individual vote. The player who tallies the most votes will be awarded 3 points towards ‘CPA Players’ Award’for that match. The players tallying the second most and third most votes will be awarded 2 points and 1 point respectively. In order to compensate for the difference in formats and to ensure that players from all formats of the game have a fair chance of winning the award, a weighting system will apply to all votes. One Day International matches will attract a ‘weighting factor’ of 3 and T20I matches a ‘weighting factor’ of 2.