ICC Awards

The International Cricket Council have announced the winners of their awards across a variety of categories and for the sober of thought, there were no real surprises with the exception perhaps of Kumar Sangakkara's naming as ODI Player of the year.

Jonathan Trott was named International Cricketer of the Year, a fair return for a player who has been successful in Tests and ODI's and who is currently the best No 3 in world cricket and Alastair Cook was a lay down misere for Test Cricketer of the Year with his mountain of runs at a phenomenal average.

The West Indian opener Stafanie Taylor was named Women's Cricketer of the Year averaging 76 with the bat and taking 15 wickets in ODI matches and playing so strongly at the Women's Twenty/20 Challenge in South Africa.

The hot field, thanks to prolific number of matches each year and the World Cup being played during the voting period, was the ODI Player of the Year and it was Kumar Sangakkara who emerged the winner. A fine player who had a strong year, he beat several others who perhaps had stronger claims. There were many batsmen whose figures were as good, if not better than Sangakkara. Among them would have been Gautum Gamhir, JP Dumminy, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson and Misbah-ul-Haq but the unluckiest would have to be South Africa's bearded bowler destroyer, Hashim Amla whose record over the same period was superior. Bowlers tend to be overlooked in ODI awards but Lasith Malinga's 39 wickets at 21 were the best in international cricket and should have had him in the top two or three for consideration. The press release said otherwise.

Sangakkara's won the people's choice award, the respected Aleem Dar was named top umpire and West Indies leggie Devendra Bishoo was named the Emerging Player of the Year. The best of the non-Test playing nations was Ryan ten Doeschate, who scored hundreds against England and Ireland at the World Cup. Tim Southee won the Performance of the Year for Twenty20's for his 5-18 against Pakistan at Eden Park on Boxing Day.

Finally but far from least important, the ICC recognised Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian Captain, for his act of allowing Ian Bell to return to the wicket following his run out after it appeared he'd been under the misapprehension the ball was dead during his century at Trent Bridge. Dhoni was quoted afterwards as having told his team "we don't want to play our cricket that way." It was a fine act of sportsmanship and made him a worthy winner of the Spirit of Cricket Award.


The ICC Test and ODI teams of the year were also announced. You can find links to the teams in "Lango's Lean Links" in the sidebar to the left.