Paul Stirling and Kim Garth were named Ireland’s men’s and women’s players of the decade for 2011-20 at the Irish Cricket Awards on Friday night.
Stirling, who was also named as player of the year for 2020, had been shortlisted alongside Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Kevin O’Brien and William Porterfield, and was picked for his “world-class” consistency.
“He has amazing natural talent with power and match-winning qualities,” the panel said. “Opening the batting against top-quality bowling attacks, he has an outstanding strike rate which gives the team the best chance of being successful against the top nations.”
Garth, who made her international debut in 2010,when she was 14.She was shortlisted alongside Laura Delany, Cecelia and Isobel Joyce, and Clare Shillington. Skim was the Ireland’s leading wicket-taker in both ODIs and T20Is in last decade , and is one of the first six players to be awarded a professional contract by Cricket Ireland in 2019.
Garth said.”It was a decision I’d thought about for quite a while and obviously it was very difficult knowing that my Irish career was something that was going to have to be put on hold for the time being,” Last year, she left Irish cricket, instead committing to a two-year contract to play for Victoria in Australia.
Stirling said “It’s a pretty special award, I must admit, over such a long period of time, to come out with something like that… there’s so many great players that have been involved over the last 10 years, so to come out on top of that – I am not quite sure how, but delighted to have received the award. It’s just class.”