Hey everyone, the ICC currently have voting open for their annual awards which I only found out this year goes to a public vote. Anyway, voting closes in 20 hours so would appreciate if you could spare some time and vote for Saskia Horley for Women’s emerging player of the year. I know her and her family very well, she’s actually an Australian with a Scottish mother but has struggled to find opportunities in Australia. This is despite being NSW Premier Crickets First grade women’s player of the year a few times (I think like 2017/18 and 2021/22 or she at the very least won awards) and had averaged 109 striking at like 120 in 2023/24 for T20 games but was somehow unable to get selection for a WBBL game for Sydney Thunder (and they were having issue this season with batting depth 🤔 🙄). However, she managed to play some games for NSW in the WNCL last year batting 5/6 and managed to score the 3rd most runs in the season for NSW despite having less innings than the two ahead and multiple behind.
She decided to move to London in March 2024 to play for Middlesex and also have more opportunities to play for Scotland who I think she started playing with in 2022 scoring 52 on debut. Anyway some highlights of her international cricket this year.
In 5 ODI’s she has scored 276 runs @69 with a Strike Rate of 79.53. 1 century and 2 50’s. She has bowled 22 overs total for 9/80, averaging 8.88!!!! and economy of 3.63. Best figures of 4/24.
In 10 T20I’s she’s scored 142 runs @15.85 striking at 84 with a top score of 61*. She’s bowled 3 overs for 3/28 with best figures of 3/12.
She became the 3rd women’s player in history to score a century and take 4 wickets in an ODI game after Stefanie Taylor (135* and 4/35 8ov) and Amelia Kerr (232* and 5/17 7ov) with a 100 and 4/24 10ov.
She was instrumental in helping Scotland reach their first ever Women’s T20 World Cup where she proceeded to perform below her best (38 runs from 4 games but 3/12 off 2 overs). In a warm up game against Pakistan however she scored 48 off 42 but this isn’t an official T20I.
She also has some better T20I stats from 2022 (avg. 25, SR: 119), but I think she’s better suited to the 50 over format in general.
The link is here for the voting:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/awards/icc-awards-of-the-year-2024
You will have to make an account to vote though just make sure to only tick the box that agrees to terms and conditions and not the 3 other boxes that would spam your email when signing up.
At the same time you can also vote in all the other categories.
