Northern Knights captain Mark Adair named International Player of the Year at Irish Cricket Awards

The 28-year-old enjoyed a standout year, taking 25 wickets at an average of 17.04 across 14 Twenty20 international matches while he also collected 10 wickets in Test cricket as Ireland recorded back-to-back victories over Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

Since making his debut against England in May 2019, Lisburn all-rounder Adair has developed into one of Ireland’s most important players, becoming the first Irish bowler to reach 100 T20I wickets – he has since moved on to 127 in that format.

It’s that sort of form which has allowed Adair to showcase his skills around the world on the franchise scene, most recently representing Gulf Giants at the ILT20 in the United Arab Emirates.

Elsewhere, Woodvale’s Ruhan Pretorius won Inter-Provincial Series Player of the Year after scoring 302 runs and collecting 12 wickets across 10 matches for the Knights last season.

Pretorius registered three half-centuries for Simon Johnston’s side and was also one of the standout performers in local cricket, topping the run charts with 1,173 at an average of 69 – a return which included five centuries – alongside 35 wickets.

According to CricketEurope, only six players have scored more runs since 2006 than Pretorius with the 34-year-old amassing 8,056 in nine seasons across spells with Waringstown, North Down and Woodvale.

Holywood’s Lara Maritz was named Women’s Club Player of the Year, Stormont picked up Groundskeeping Team of the Year and local umpire Alan Neill won Club Cricket Official of the Year.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of Northern Knights representation in the upcoming Ireland Wolves tour to Abu Dhabi for a series of fixtures against Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A.

Ross Adair, Ben Calitz, Cade Carmichael, Matthew Foster, Tom Mayes, Cian Robertson, Morgan Topping and Sam Topping have all been included in a squad which will be captained by Gavin Hoey.

“The Ireland Wolves programme has become an important part of our talent pathway – both as a succession planning tool and as a means of giving future internationals a taste of life as an international cricketer,” said Andrew White, National Men’s Selector. “It is these sorts of tours that we envisioned when the Wolves programme was set up.

“It’s always great to send a squad to the UAE, as we play a lot of cricket in this part of the world nowadays.

"This tour offers a great opportunity for the players to demonstrate their ability to adapt to unfamiliar conditions and deal with opponents that will offer skillsets that are equally unfamiliar..

“The multi-format nature of the tour also mimics what the players will face if they take that step up to the next level and will be a test in itself.

"The squad ranges from full internationals (with 41 senior caps between them) to some of Ireland’s best emerging talent and we look forward to seeing them in action.

“Head Coach Gary Wilson will oversee the tour, while we have asked Gavin Hoey to captain the squad.

"Gavin made his full international debut late last year and has demonstrated a good tactical cricket brain. I have no doubt he will relish this challenge.”