White Fern Melie Kerr named ICC Women's Cricketer of the Year

Melie Kerr has capped off her incredible 2024 by winning the biggest individual award in the sport, being named ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year.

She adds it to her ever-growing list of accolades, having already won the ICC T20 Player of the Year award.

The 24-year-old shone for the White Ferns in their successful T20 World Cup campaign, taking the most wickets and being named the player of the tournament.

"To win the [T20] World Cup was pretty special, that's obviously the highlight, to have the award at the end that's special but it's not what you play for,” Kerr said.

Kerr took 43 wickets and scored 651 runs across both T20 and ODI formats for the White Ferns in 2024.

“I love playing for New Zealand, I love representing the White Ferns and for me we have an outstanding group of players and support staff."

Kerr credited players she looked up to who have helped her get to the top.

“I think of Soph [Sophie Devine] and Suzie [Bates] who are role models and Amy [Satterthwaite] who have been the best players in the world for periods in their career, then people like Kane Williamson who I tried to model my batting off as a kid. You hear of those great names, to be standing here with this award is very special.”

She is the first New Zealander to win the award, beating Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka), Annabel Sutherland (Australia) and Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa).

Kerr is looking to finish off the summer with one more award as she looks to captain the Wellington Blaze to their second-straight Super Smash title this weekend.

“We've been in the finals quite a lot as a team and never really had the opportunity to play at home. We've got to get there first but that means a lot, the Wellington crowd always shows up and the banks are always pretty full," she said.

You can watch coverage of the Super Smash finals live on TVNZ+ and Duke this weekend.

By 1News' Luke Robinson