ICC Women’s Player of the Month for April 2025 Revealed: Kathryn Bryce Clinches Top Honour

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced Scotland’s captain Kathryn Bryce as the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for April 2025, following her standout performances in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier held in Pakistan.

Bryce’s consistent contributions with both bat and ball set her apart from her fellow nominees — West Indies’ skipper Hayley Matthews and Pakistan’s captain Fatima Sana — both of whom also had strong campaigns during the qualifiers.

Hayley Matthews impressed with her all-round display, amassing 240 runs at a strike rate of 116.50 and claiming 13 wickets. She delivered standout performances including a century and four wickets against Scotland, as well as a blistering 70 off 29 balls in a must-win clash against Thailand. Despite her heroics, the West Indies narrowly missed World Cup qualification on net run rate.

Fatima Sana, on the other hand, led an unbeaten Pakistan side through the Qualifier, finishing with 12 wickets at an economy of just 3.97. Her best figures came against Scotland (4/23), she also contributed with the bat, most notably scoring 62* against Thailand.

In the men’s category, Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz was named the ICC Men’s Player of the Month for April 2025. His award came on the back of strong performances with bat and ball during Bangladesh’s Test series against Zimbabwe. “This award will be a big source of inspiration for me to keep giving my best and contributing to Bangladesh’s success on the world stage,” Mehidy said.

Back in the women’s division, Kathryn Bryce's numbers spoke volumes. She ended the Qualifier as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 293 runs across five games, averaging an impressive 73.25. Her match-winning 131* against Ireland was the highest individual score of the tournament. She also notched up 91 runs against Pakistan and 60 against Thailand, while picking up six wickets across the tournament, making her a decisive force with both bat and ball.

“It’s a real honour to win this award,” said Bryce. “Knowing that it’s being voted for by the global cricket community makes it that extra bit special; even just to be nominated alongside two players of the stature of Fatima Sana and Hayley Matthews, who both had fantastic tournaments themselves, was amazing.”

Despite Scotland failing to qualify for the Women’s ODI World Cup later this year in India, Bryce said the tournament provided invaluable growth for her team.

“The World Cup Qualifier was a fantastic competition for our Scotland team. The way that we played our cricket and developed and grew in a format that we’ve not played a huge amount of together was great to see, and it was terrific to have a lot of different players standing up and taking charge of the game at various moments,” she added.

“Across the board during the entire tournament in Pakistan, the standard of cricket was brilliant, and all the games were really close. It was a wonderful tournament to be a part of and hopefully, we’ll have more opportunities to build on the momentum we created there.”

Bryce, born in Edinburgh on November 17, 1997, has been leading the Scotland women’s team since 2018. She’s known for her all-round skills as a right-handed batter and right-arm medium bowler. In December 2020, she was named ICC Associate Cricketer of the Decade and, a year later, became the first Scottish cricketer — male or female — to break into the ICC’s top ten player rankings.

Alongside her international career, she has played domestic cricket for teams including The Blaze, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and Manchester Originals. She and her sister Sarah Bryce, also a Scotland international, were among the first Associate players to receive full-time professional contracts in 2020 — a key milestone in the rise of women’s cricket in Scotland.