Four vie for coveted ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’ award; Sanga for ‘ODI Player’

England batsmen Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, Hashim Amla of South Africa and last year’s ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’ Sachin Tendulkar of India have all been short-listed for the top honour at the LG ICC Awards 2011.

The votes have now been casted by the independent 25-person academy and these four men are the ones in the running to receive the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’ at a glittering ceremony in London on 12 September 2011.

In addition, Trott and Cook are also short-listed for the ‘ICC Test Player of the Year’ alongside England team-mate James Anderson and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis at the eighth annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).

Amla is also in contention for the ‘ICC ODI Player of the Year’ award and he is short-listed in that category alongside Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Australia’s Shane Watson and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 winner Gautam Gambhir of India.

The ‘Twenty20 International (T20I) Performance of the Year’ sees New Zealand’s Tim Southee short-listed alongside England’s Tim Bresnan, Australia’s Shane Watson and South Africa’s JP Duminy.

This year’s LG ICC Awards includes 10 individual prizes, including the ‘LG People’s Choice Award’ and also features a newly designed ‘Spirit of Cricket Award,’ which honours a moment by an international player that has most adhered to the Spirit of Cricket. This award is nominated and voted for by the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.

The long-lists were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies Captain and current Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd. The panel also includes former captains Zaheer Abbas of Pakistan and England’s Mike Gatting and New Zealand’s Danny Morrison and South Africa’s Paul Adams.

The short-lists were created after the individual player awards were voted for by an academy of 25 highly-credentialed cricket personalities from around the world. The academy includes a host of former players, respected members of the media as well as representatives of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and ICC Match Referees.

The nominations from the ‘ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year’ were decided after a committee of former players, current administrators and journalists created a long-list. This in turn was broken down into a short-list by a separate 25-person voting academy.

This year’s short-list for the ‘ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year’ sees last year’s winner, Australia’s Shelley Nitschke, on the list again, alongside West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor and England duo of Lydia Greenway and Charlotte Edwards.

The David Shepherd Trophy for ‘ICC Umpire of the Year’ award was voted on by the 10 current Test captains and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and is partly based on the umpires’ performance statistics.

The award for the umpire of the year was fittingly named the David Shepherd Trophy last year. The late David Shepherd embodied everything that is good in cricket. In the often serious world of match officiating he brought to it a sparkle, a delight and a humanity that was both engaging and uplifting. He generated respect and warmth from those he met with his humour, humility, empathy, excellent decision-making and professionalism. His umpiring was of the highest quality and the fact he stood in 92 Tests, 172 ODIs and officiated in three ICC Cricket World Cup finals is a testimony to his ability, dedication and sheer enjoyment of umpiring.

This year’s nominees are 2009 and 2010 ‘ICC Umpire of the Year’ Aleem Dar and five-time ICC Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, along with Austalia’s Steve Davis and Ian Gould of England. All four short-listed candidates, coincidentally, were part of the Playing Control Team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final in Mumbai on 2 April 2011.

The ‘ICC Emerging Player of the Year’ nominees short-list features two players from the West Indies – Devendra Bishoo and Darren Bravo – and two from Pakistan, Wahab Riaz and Azhar Ali.

The ‘ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year’ award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the ICC full members.

This year’s short-list sees the return of 2008 and 2010 winner, Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands, who is joined by Ireland pair of Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien while Hamid Hassan of Afghanistan rounds off the shortlist for that category.

Based on the period between 11 August 2010 and 3 August 2011, the LG ICC Awards 2011 – presented in association with FICA – take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

That period includes such high-profile events as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the ICC Intercontinental Cup final, several ICC World Cricket Leagues as well as several bilateral Test and ODI series.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its eighth year and this year it will be held in London, England. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009), Dubai (2008) and Bengaluru (2010).

Short-lists of nominees (in alphabetical order):

Individual awards

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year:

Hashim Amla (SA), Alastair Cook (Eng), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Jonathan Trott (Eng)

ICC Test Player of the Year:

James Anderson (Eng), Alastair Cook (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Jonathan Trott (Eng)

ICC ODI Player of the Year:

Hashim Amla (SA), Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Shane Watson (Aus)

ICC Emerging Player of the Year:

Azhar Ali (Pak), Devendra Bishoo (WI), Darren Bravo (WI), Wahab Riaz (Pak)

ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year:

Ryan ten Doeschate (Ned), Hamid Hassan (Afg), Kevin O’Brien (Ire), Paul Stirling (Ire)

ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year:

Tim Bresnan (Eng) - 3-10-3-4 v Pakistan, Cardiff, 7 September 2010; JP Duminy (SA) - 96 not out (54b, 10x4, 4x6) v Zimbabwe, Kimberley, 10 October 2010; Tim Southee (NZ) - 4-1-18-5 v Pakistan, Auckland, 26 December 2010; Shane Watson (Aus) - 59 (31b, 6x4, 3x6) v England, Adelaide, 12 January 2011

ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year:

Charlotte Edwards (Eng), Lydia Greenway (Eng), Shelley Nitschke (Aus), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year:

Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Ian Gould, Simon Taufel

ICC Spirit of Cricket:

MS Dhoni (Ind) - for his recall of Ian Bell during the second Test match between England and India at Trent Bridge, July/August 2011, Jacques Kallis (SA) - for twice during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 walking after clarifying with the opposition fielder if they had caught the ball cleanly

LG People’s Choice Award:

Hashim Amla (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Jonathan Trott (Eng)