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Cricket: India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (picture) was named the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricketer of the Year yesterday for taking 48 wickets and scoring 336 runs in eight tests during the voting period. The 30-year-old Ashwin, the world’s top-ranked test bowler, became the third Indian to win the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy while also scooping the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award for the period from Sept. 14, 2015 to Sept. 20, 2016. “It feels great to follow the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid in being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year. To also win the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year makes it even better,” Ashwin said.

Golf: Former British Open champion and Solheim Cup captain Helen Alfredsson has been appointed the first player president of the Ladies European Tour (LET). The 51-year-old Swede registered 21 worldwide victories including one major at the 1993 Nabisco Dinah Shore Championship. Alfredsson also won the British Open in 1990, before the tournament became a major 11 years later, and three Evian Masters titles. “I’m honoured to be the first president of the Ladies European Tour,” she said. “I’m thrilled to be able to give something back to the tour after all these years.”

Basketball, NBA: Russell Westbrook scored a team-high 42 points, including 11 consecutive in the final five minutes, and reserve guard Alex Abrines scored 18 points to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 121-110 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday at the Smoothie King Center. Westbrook, the NBA’s leading scorer, added 10 rebounds and seven assists and fell short of his 51 triple-double of the season. The Thunder (17-12), who had lost three of four games coming in, also got 14 points and 14 rebounds from center Enes Kanter.

Rugby League: Australia scrum-half Cooper Cronk has won the 2016 Golden Boot award. Thirty-three-year-old Cronk, the Melbourne and Queensland half-back, saw off the challenge from Cameron Smith, Darius Boyd and Jason Taumalolo to earn the accolade presented annually by Rugby League World magazine to the world’s best player. The award, decided by a panel of experts, recognises performances throughout the year at club and representative level, with particular emphasis being placed on internationals, where Cronk was one of Australia’s stand-out stars in their Four Nations triumph in England in November.

Darts: James Wade produced a match-winning 141 checkout to crush Ronny Huybrechts 3-0 and move into the second round at the William Hill World Darts Championship. The sixth seed shrugged off losing the first leg of each set to produce finishes of 84, 120 and 62 on the penultimate night of first-round action at Alexandra Palace. Eighth seed Mensur Suljovic eased past Ron Meulenkamp 3-0, after his Dutch opponent spurned a 2-0 lead in the first set. Robert Thornton had few problems dispatching Zoran Lerchbacher 3-0 once he hit stride, the ninth seed easing through.

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