Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu has won her second ICC Women’s Player of the Month award in 2024, having previously claimed the honor in May. She surpassed Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma to secure the ICC Women’s Player of the Month title for July 2024.
July marked another significant achievement in Athapaththu’s exceptional year, as she led Sri Lanka to their first-ever Women’s Asia Cup title, triumphing over seven-time champions India. In May, Chamari earned the Player of the Month title by scoring 151 runs and taking 6 wickets in four matches, including a Player of the Match performance in a final, where she registered the first century of the Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2024.
This latest accolade is Chamari Athapaththu’s third such, tying her with West Indies captain Hayley Matthews for the second-most wins. They both trail Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner, who leads the list with four awards.
Most Player of the Month in Women’s Cricket:
Ashleigh Gardner (Australia) – 4
Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka) – 3
Hayley Matthews (West Indies) – 3
Heather Knight (England) – 2
Alyssa Healy (Australia) – 2
Under Athapaththu’s leadership, Sri Lanka has achieved significant milestones in recent times. Over the past year, Sri Lanka secured their first-ever historic T20I series wins against both England and South Africa. They also qualified for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 by winning all their matches in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2024 held in Abu Dhabi.
🏆 Player of the Month – Chamari Athapaththu 🏆
Chamari Athapaththu beat Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana in the race to claim the monthly title.#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/D6LjwOqc1R
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) August 12, 2024
The pinnacle of their achievements came when they won the Women’s Asia Cup for the first time in its ninth edition. Athapaththu played a crucial role in this historic victory. Despite a quiet start with just 12 runs in their opening game against Bangladesh, she bounced back with her personal-best T20I score of 119* against Malaysia, marking the first century in the Women’s T20 format of the Asia Cup. She then scored an unbeaten 49 against Thailand and followed up with back-to-back fifties in the knockouts—63 against Pakistan in the semi-final and 61 in the final against India. Over the course of the tournament, Athapaththu accumulated 304 runs, the most in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup, at an impressive strike rate of 146.85, and also took three wickets, earning the Player of the Tournament title along with three consecutive Player of the Match awards in her five innings.
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Chamari expressed her happiness and honor at being chosen as the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for the third time. She emphasized that this recognition is not only a personal achievement but also a testament to the support of her teammates and coaches. Chamari believes that such accolades will inspire young girls playing cricket in Sri Lanka and beyond, showing them that commitment and dedication to the game will eventually be rewarded.
Chamari mentioned, “I am happy and honored to have been chosen as the ICC Women’s Player of the Month’ for the third time and it is heartening to see such reckoning for the efforts of mine, achieved with the support of my teammates and coaches, being continuously recognised by the cricketing world, I believe these recognitions will send a positive message to thousands of girls who are already playing cricket in my country and also elsewhere and want to play for their country; that commitment and dedication for the game will one day pay off.”
(Quotes sourced from ICC)