| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Amsterdam: The Netherlands batsman Tom Cooper was today named as the player of the tournament at the ICC World Cricket League Division 1.
Cooper was the unanimous choice of a select group of experts* following his excellent form that yielded 312 runs with the bat in a lead up to the play-offs on the final day of the tournament. Players’ performances in those play-offs were not taken into account.
The 23-year-old, playing in his first tournament for the Netherlands, was in sublime form and showed tremendous consistency while scoring 87, 67, 39, 101 and 18 which gave him a batting average of 62.40.
When he scored half-centuries in the opening two ODIs against Scotland and Kenya, Cooper became the first batsman in the history of ODIs to score three half-centuries in his first three matches. In his debut against Scotland before the series, he scored an unbeaten 80.
During their deliberations, the members of the panel discussed several names, highlighting such players as Mark Jonkman of the Netherlands, who was the leading wicket-taker with 10 victims, Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal, who scored 178 runs at an average of 89, Kevin O’Brien of Ireland, who picked up two man of the match awards while scoring128 runs and taking six wickets, Canada captain Ashish Bagai, who was the second most successful batsman with 245 runs at an average of 61.25, Kenya’s Thomas Odoyo, who scored 101 runs and took eight wickets, and Scotland captain Gordon Drummond, who claimed seven wickets and scored 42 runs.
Cooper is the third man to be named player of the tournament at the ICC World Cricket League Division 1, following on from Edgar Schiferli of the Netherlands, who won it in 2009 and Canada’s Bagai, who picked up the award when the inaugural event was staged in Nairobi in 2007.
The selection panel that chose the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 player of the tournament consisted of Adrian Griffith (ex-West Indies Test opener and ICC match referee), Kumar Dharmasena (former Sri Lanka off-spinner, a member of the Sri Lanka squad that won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1996 and is now member of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires), Jereon Smits (Former Netherlands captain), Rob Kemming (tournament director and member of the KNCB) and Ian Callender (a leading cricket journalist for outlets including Cricket Europe).
