DF Vogelhubert won the Player of the Year award at the Centre for Cricket Development’s CCD Cricket Awards on Friday night.
The burly 24-year-old off spinner was the club’s leading wicket taker during the 2009/10 MTC Premier League while he was also an explosive lower order batsman.
He played a major role in taking the club to the Premier League final for the first time in their history where they lost to Wanderers by 100 runs. On the way to the final CCD beat Wanderers twice during their league campaign, with Vogelhubert making valuable contributions with his batting.
Vogelhubert, who only joined CCD at the start of the season, said he was honoured to win the award.
“This is the first time that I have won this award and it feels great. I just play cricket to enjoy it and I’ve certainly enjoyed this season,” he said.
Vogelhubert has not represented Namibia yet, but he said he hoped top catch the eye of the national selectors.
“I would like to play for Namibia, but for now I will just enjoy the game and try to improve,” he said.
Ewald Steenkamp won the Best Batsman of the Year award after posting some sizeable scores in the MTC Premier League, but his best performance came for the national team in their ICC Intercontinental Shield match against Bermuda in April. Steenkamp and fellow opener Raymond van Schoor shared a Namibian record partnership of 374 runs, with Steenkamp scoring 206.
Vogelhubert also won the Best Bowling award, while William De’Ath won the Best Fielder award.
Polly Negongo won a special award, the dubiously entitled ‘Biggest Trash Talker award, for which he received a trophy with a toilet roll attached to it.
For the CCD’s second team, Michau du Preez won the Best Batsman award while Christopher Kumbi won the Outstanding Player award.
CCD’s chairman Christo Botha said the club had a great season and thanked the senior players for their loyalty and commitment.
“We’ve got good people at the club like Dee Thakur, Wilbur Slabber and Polly Negongo and I am grateful for the loyalty that they have shown through the years,” he said.
“We cannot be successful if the senior players dont take responsibility at the club, so Id like to call on them to join the administration and help build the club,” he added.
Cricket Namibia executive member Kallie Engelbrecht congratulated CCD on a successful season, saying that one could see that the club was achieving its goals.
“From the outside one can see a group of seniors who defined their goals and achieved them, while you have a lot of youngsters in your second team which bodes well for the future. Dee Thakur is doing a good job with his Cricket School while it was also good to see the players wearing their new sponsored kit with pride,” he added.
Besides being the ‘Biggest Trash Talker’, Negongo also represented sponsors Omina Supplies and for once he did not talk trash when he announced that Omina Supplies would renew its sponsorship of N$15 000 for the new 2010/11 season.
“It’s been a pleasure to work with this club and its great to see the development taking place and the youngsters coming through. Our second team comprises only school boys and they did very well against senior players. it was great to see their commitment - this is really what we wanted to see and it has encouraged us to renew our sponsorship,” he said.