Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene and South Africa’s Dale Steyn have been nominated for both the Cricketer of the Year and Test
Player of the Year categories for the LG ICC Awards 2008. While South Africa captain Graeme Smith is the fourth nominee for the Cricketer of the Year, Jacques Kallis completes the list for the Test Player of the Year.
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India’s one-day and Twenty20 International captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has also picked up nominations in two categories. Apart from being shortlisted for The ODI Player of the Year, his captaincy while leading India to victory in the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa last September has earned him a nomination for the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.
The fifth edition of the awards to be held in Dubai on Wednesday, will be presented in association with FICA and will take into account performances by players and officials in the period between August 9, 2007 and August 12, 2008.
Apart from Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, nominated for the ODI Player of the Year, Ishant Sharma (Emerging Player of the Year) and Yuvraj Singh (Twenty20 International Performance of the Year) will be making up the Indian representation at this year’s awards.
While Ishant will be up against Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis, England all-rounder Stuart Broad and South African fast bowler Morne Morkel in the Emerging Player of The Year category, Dhoni and Yuvraj will face competition from Chris Gayle of the West Indies and Australia’s Brett Lee for the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.
Lee is one of the three Australian players who have picked up nominations this year along with Nathan Bracken (ODI Player of the Year) and Lisa Sthalekar (Women’s Cricketer of the Year).
Sthalekar will be competing alongside Claire Taylor of England, New Zealand’s Nicola Browne and England captain Charlotte Edwards for the Women’s Cricketer of the Year award.
Meanwhile, Thomas Odoyo of Kenya will be looking to win the Associate Player of the Year award for the second time, but will have to thwart challenges from team-mate Alex Obanda, Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands and Ireland’s Niall O’Brien.
Simon Taufel will be also be eyeing his fifth successive Umpire of the Year award after being nominated alongside Mark Benson, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis and Rudi Koertzen.
The nominations for six of the awards were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd and comprising Greg Chappell, Shaun Pollock, Sidath Wettimuny and Athar Ali Khan. The panel will also select the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.
The winners of the six individual awards will be voted upon by a 25-person panel from around the world, made up of renowned former players, respected members of the media, an umpire and match referee from the Elite panel.
Meanwhile, the nominations for the Women’s Cricketer of the Year Award were decided after each of the world’s top 10 teams was given the opportunity to nominate two players. The award will be voted on by a separate 16-person voting academy featuring former players and other experts on the women’s game.
While the Spirit of Cricket Award will be voted on by all the international captains as well as all members of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees, the Umpire of the Year Award will be voted on by the captains and the match referees.
Source: Cricinfo