The International Cricket Council (ICC) awards the best cricketer annually with the prestigious recognition of ICC Men’s Cricketer of the year. The cricketer with the most impactful performance becomes the recipient of the honorary award. ICC started presenting this award in 2004. Shaheen Afridi is named the ICC Men’s Cricketer of the year 2021. He also became the first Pakistani cricketer to get this recognition and won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy. Afridi scalped 78 wickets in 36 matches across all the international format matches this year. His best figure of 2021 came against the 2nd test match against West Indies where he picked up 6/51. Also, Shaheen impressed everyone with his impeccable performance against India in the T20 World Cup where he took 3 wickets including Virat Kohli.
In the year 2004, ICC introduced the award and Rahul Dravid became the first cricketer to win the ICC Men’s Cricketer Of The Year.
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ICC Men’s Cricketer of the year since 2004
| Year | Winner | Country |
| 2004 | Rahul Dravid | India |
| 2005 | Andrew Flintoff Jacques Kallis | England West Indies |
| 2006 | Ricky Ponting | Australia |
| 2007 | Ricky Ponting | Australia |
| 2008 | Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies |
| 2009 | Mitchell Johnson | Australia |
| 2010 | Sachin Tendulkar | India |
| 2011 | Jonathan Trott | England |
| 2012 | Kumar Sangakkara | Sri Lanka |
| 2013 | Michael Clarke | Australia |
| 2014 | Mitchell Johnson | Australia |
| 2015 | Steve Smith | Australia |
| 2016 | Ravichandran Ashwin | India |
| 2017 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2018 | Virat Kohli | India |
| 2019 | Ben Stokes | England |
| 2021 | Shaheen Afridi | Pakistan |
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