ICC announces Women's Player of the Month for August

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced Sri Lanka players Dunith Wellalage and Harshitha Samarawickrama as the ICC Players of the Month for August 2024.

The talented left-handed top-order batter has gone from strength to strength in recent months, and continued her stirring form in August against Ireland.

Notably, three of the last four winners have been from Sri Lanka, including Chamari Athapaththu who secured the award in both May and July.

This is also the third woman’s award for the island nation in 2024, with Athapaththu having won the award in May and July.

The southpaw dominated Ireland in both ODI and T20I legs of the tour, securing some monster scores on the way.

Fresh from an unbeaten 69* against India in the Women’s Asia Cup final at the end of July, Madavi improved her output upon arriving in Dublin as she registered scores of 86*, a career-best effort from her end, and 65 from the two T20I matches to finish the two-match series as the leading run-scorer for both sides.

Madavi continued her prolific form in the longer white-ball format. In the three-match ODI series against the Irish as she poured in scores of 19, 105, and 48* to again finish as the leading run-scorer. Her century in the second ODI game made her just the third Sri Lanka woman’s player after Chamari Athapaththu and Vishmi Gunaratne to score an ODI ton.

Madavi says receiving the award is a shining moment in her playing career to this point.

“I am extremely happy with this recognition, which I consider a new high in my career. It certainly gives me a lot of confidence ahead of the big competition, the Women’s T20 World Cup.

“This achievement would not have been possible without the incredible support network around me—my teammates, coaches, parents, my sister, brother, friends, and mentors. I take this opportunity to thank them all.

“I also wish to commend the players who were nominated alongside me for the Player of the Month award. They are immensely talented, and I loved competing with such quality.”