Johannesburg [South Africa], May 27 (ANI): Cricket South Africa (CSA) is excited to announce that the highly-anticipated annual CSA Awards will be held on 7 July in Midrand, in what will be a proud celebration of an extraordinary 'summer of cricket'.

The event will see the return of an in-person awards show for the first time in three years, and a theme of 'A Summer to Celebrate' aims to incorporate the most memorable elements of the past season that included numerous successes on and off the field.

The awards will especially seek to celebrate the strides made to achieve CSA's vision and mission of excellence, access and inclusion, while rewarding the prodigious sports talents who helped make this possible through their inspiring performances from grassroots level through to the professional stage.

Numerous event activations and special performances are planned in order to make the 2023 CSA Awards an unforgettable and effervescent event that will also serve as a thank you to the millions of South Africans who proudly and passionately displayed their enduring love for the game this past season.

This was particularly evident during the 2022-23 season as the Proteas Women momentously progressed to the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa, which drew record attendance and viewership figures. This historic campaign followed in the wake of South Africa also hosting the first-ever ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, with both tournaments undoubtedly serving to inspire the next generation of cricket stars.

Meanwhile, the Proteas Men welcomed the dawn of a new era under the leadership of dual coaches Shukri Conrad and Rob Walter. The Test team finished the season with a dominant 2-0 series win over the West Indies, while the ODI side did everything in its power to successfully earn automatic qualification for this year's 50-over World Cup as they formally concluded their 2022-23 campaign with a 2-0 win over the Netherlands. The T20I team also made a massive statement about their ambitions and immense potential, for example when they achieved a world record run-chase of 259 against the West Indies in March.

Another major highlight from this summer of cricket saw the remarkably successful launch of the inaugural SA20 competition, which was played out in front of packed crowds across the country as fans in their tens of thousands were welcomed back to our stadiums in full force.

On the domestic scene, the Dolphins and Northern Cape Heat were crowned champions of the 2022/23 CSA 4-Day Series in Division 1 and 2 respectively, while KwaZulu-Natal Inland's AET Tuskers were memorably promoted to Division 1 as per the domestic structure that was implemented two seasons ago. In the limited-overs format, the Lions retained their CSA One-Day Cup trophy and the Momentum Multiply Titans claimed victory in the final of the CSA T20 Challenge.

Off the field, the past 12 months have also represented a fruitful period of progress and purpose for Cricket South Africa, as highlighted when CSA walked away with the illustrious National Federation of the Year Award at the Annual SA Sports Awards in March.

With all this in mind, there will be so much to celebrate from a summer of cricket that truly 'brought the heat'. The Amateur Awards will be held throughout the morning on Friday, 7 July, while a special gala dinner will take place later that night to celebrate the nominees and winners of the Professional Awards.

Over 30 awards categories have been confirmed for the two sets of awards, with the nominees - who will soon be announced - having been decided by a high-profile judging panel of experts.

This year's event aims to be a season-ending highlight as CSA once again will be able to warmly welcome the nominees and numerous guests to an in-person awards show after the last three annual ceremonies had to be held virtually due to COVID-19.

As part of the build-up to the special awards day, an annual invitational golf day will also be held on 6 July as special guests are welcomed to celebrate a season that proudly focused on making cricket in South Africa the most accessible, inclusive and globally competitive sport. (ANI)