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Three years after contemplating the end of a career that had lost its glitter, Mitchell Johnson officially reclaimed the mantle of world’s best cricketer.
Johnson on Friday won his second Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, having been named the ICC’s cricketer of the year in 2009.
The left-armer pipped Sri Lankans Angelo Mathews and Kumar Sangakkara, and South Africa run machine AB de Villiers to take out the sport’s most prestigious individual prize.
“Some of the greats of the game have been nominated and won this award and it’s a very special honour,” Johnson said of the award Michael Clarke won in 2013.
“I’m very happy with where I am at the moment and I want to keep getting better as a cricketer.
“This is something that I’ll be able to look back on in time when my career is over and be exceptionally proud of.”
Johnson was also named Test cricketer of the year.
It was fitting reward for the mustachioed marvel, who earned a Test recall a year ago and proceeded to demoralise England with his express pace and brutal bounce.
Johnson bowled Australia to a 5-0 Ashes win, earning man-of-the-series honours.
“I was sitting there, thinking, I could die here in the f***ing Gabbattoir,” Kevin Pietersen wrote in his recently-released autobiography.
“I was really worried … petrified.
“You very seldom hear people in your own team saying that they are physically scared, but our tail-end batsmen were scared.”
The 33-year-old then claimed 12 wickets in Centurion, firing Australia to a shock win over South Africa in the three-Test series opener.
When Johnson hurt his toe touring the same country in 2011, it forced him to spend a year on the sidelines.
Johnson later suggested the injury saved his career, given he had fallen out of love with the sport following a miserable 2009 Ashes in England.
It wasn’t the first time he had considered walking away from the game.
Before bursting onto the international scene, Johnson worked as a delivery truck driver after being cut by Queensland Cricket and suffering a series of serious back injuries.
National Twenty20 captain Aaron Finch also earned an ICC gong on Friday.
Finch’s record-breaking knock of 156 off 63 balls against England in Southampton was ranked the T20 international performance of the year.
National women’s captain Meg Lanning was named women’s T20 cricketer of the year.
Johnson’s dominant year
(voting period between 26 August 2013 and 17 September 2014):
*59 Test wickets in eight Tests at an average of 15.23
*21 one-day international wickets in 16 games at an average of 33.04
Highlights of 2014 ICC awards
*Cricketer of the year: Mitchell Johnson
Shortlisted: Johnson, AB de Villiers (South Africa), Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)
*Test cricketer of the year: Mitchell Johnson
Shortlisted: Johnson, Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), David Warner (Australia)
*One-day cricketer of the year: AB de Villiers (South Africa)
Shortlisted: de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (South Africa), Virat Kohli (India), Dale Steyn (South Africa)
*Twenty20 international performance of the year: Aaron Finch
Shortlisted: Finch, Alex Hales (England), Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)
*Women’s T20 cricketer of the year: Meg Lanning
Shortlisted: Lanning, Charlotte Edwards (England), Mithali Raj (India), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies)
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