Six players nominated in three categories at LG ICC Awards 2011

Six players from four countries have each been nominated in three different categories at the LG ICC Awards 2011.

Zaheer Khan from India, Jonathan Trott and Graeme Swann from England, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla from South Africa and Shane Watson from Australia feature prominently in the long-lists for the awards, which will take place at a dazzling ceremony in London, England on 12 September.

In addition, there are 11 players who are nominated in two distinct categories.

All appear among the long-lists of nominations for prizes at the eighth annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).

This year’s LG ICC Awards includes 10 individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.

For the second time, this year’s awards feature the category, the LG People’s Choice Award. This award will be chosen by cricket fans around the world who will get a chance to vote for their favourite player online from a short-list of five cricketers.

Those five cricketers - Jonathan Trott, MS Dhoni, Chris Gayle, Kumar Sangakkara and Hashim Amla - who were selected by the ICC selection panel and released to the public for voting earlier this month, were chosen on the basis of some innovative parameters, in line with the values that embody the LG brand, such as innovation, dynamism, strength in decision-making, performing well under pressure and executing a plan to distinction.

Cricket fans currently have the opportunity to vote for the cricketer of their choice online until 25 August at www.lgpeopleschoice.com.

‘The LG ICC Awards presents a wonderful opportunity for the ICC, in association with FICA and a myriad of cricket fans, to acknowledge and reward the brilliant performances of the world’s best cricketers,” said ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.

“It is also a chance to look back on some of the great cricketing feats witnessed in the past year, including from our flagship event, the ICC Cricket World Cup.

This will be the eighth Awards edition and once again the voting academy will face a tough task in deciding the winners,” he added.

The long-lists of nominations 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 international players Mike Gatting of England, Danny Morrison of New Zealand, Paul Adams of South Africa and Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas.

The individual player awards will be selected by an academy of 25 highly credentialed cricket personalities from around the world. The academy includes a host of former players and respected members of the media, 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. The award will then be voted for by a separate 25-person voting academy.

South Africa’s Shandre Fritz features in the long list for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year and is also the only female to feature in the long list for the ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.

The other long list nominees for the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year include players from the men’s teams of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe and England.

The Spirit of Cricket Award was voted on by all international captains as well as all members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. The Umpire of the Year Award was voted on by the captains and the match referees based on the umpires’ performance statistics.

There is also an Emerging Player of the Year award again this year. To qualify for that award a player must be under the age of 26 and have played fewer than five Tests and/or 10 ODIs and five T20Is at the start of the voting period.

The 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, Ireland boasts the most number of nominees with six names on the list. This is followed by Afghanistan with three nominations, while Netherlands, Canada and United Arab Emirates have one each.  Based on the period between 11 August 2010 and 3 August 2011, the LG ICC Awards 2011 - presented in association FICA - will 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).