Picture Credit: ICC
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced an additional Player of the Month award on Monday. While they gave away the usual awards, they also named a small furry who had invaded the pitch during All-Ireland T20 Women's Cup match for the special award. The apex cricket governing body posted a picture of the dog on social media with the "ICC Dog of the Month | Special award," written on it. They also named the dog named Dazzle as the "best fielder in Ireland cricket" while announcing the award.
"We have an additional Player of the Month winner this time," wrote ICC on Twitter. Notably, earlier the video of the dog invading pitch had gone viral on the Internet. Netizens had even termed the dog's adventure on the cricket field the cutest pitch invasion with some suggesting that they wouldn't complain even if it is repeated. In the 9th over the second innings of the match, the batting side needed 27 runs to win off 21 deliveries, which is when the incident happened.
Here is the official announcement from ICC:
Notably, the dog had a little run around the ground before it sprinted towards the batter at the non-striker end who held her in her arms while all the players, as well as the commentators, burst into laughter.
Meanwhile, England captain Joe Root was adjudged the ICC Men's Player of the Month award for August 2021 for being a consistent run-getter in the first three Test matches against India. The matches were part of the ICC World Test Championship and both India and England had managed to win one Test match each in August before India came back to win the fourth Test and took a 2-1 lead. India's Jasprit Bumrah had also been nominated for the honour but could not get win the award.
Unfortunately, though the final Test match at Manchester had to be called off due to COVID-19 cases in the Indian side and there is no final clarity on the fate of the series so far.
In women's cricket, Ireland's Eimear Richardson was adjudged the Women's Player of the Month for August 2021.