Wolvaardt honoured at SA Sport Industry Awards: 'A big year for me'

Proteas star batter Laura Wolvaardt was named the Sport Personality of the Year at the recently held Sport Industry Awards last week.

The Sport Industry Awards are one of South Africa's most distinguished awards ceremonies for sport and business, acknowledging leaders and the movers and shakers within the business of sport.

Wolvaardt has had a stellar summer for the Proteas women, scoring 882 runs in her 18 matches at an average of 49.00.

The Proteas batter was the leading South African run-scorer at March's Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, making 443 runs as the Proteas reached the semi-finals.

Wolvaardt also made her Test debut for the Proteas in their drawn encounter against England at Taunton. And then went onto represent Team South Africa at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

The Western Province batter then continued her form overseas, finishing as the leading run-scorer in The Hundred, scoring 286 runs for the Northern Superchargers.

This past weekend in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) final, Wolvaardt helped the Adelaide Strikers to their maiden WBBL title as they claimed a 10-run victory.

Wolvaardt finished as the third-highest run-scorer of the WBBL, ending on 408 runs in her 15 matches, scoring four half-centuries for the Strikers.

"It's such an honour to be receiving this award. It has been a big year for me," said Wolvaardt from Australia.

"I have played a lot of cricket and to see women's cricket being recognised on such a big stage is amazing and it is great to see the progress that the game has made over the last couple of years.

"For me, this year, my favourite moment was probably the World Cup. We had a really good World Cup in New Zealand, where we made the semi-finals of the tournament," she