Thaindian News

Dubai, Sep 20 (IANS) India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag are in the running for the International Cricket Council’s ‘Cricketer of the Year’ award.

South Africa’s Hashim Amla and England’s Graeme Swann are the two other players short-listed in the category.

The votes have been cast by the independent 25-member academy and one of them will be awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year at a glittering ceremony in Bangalore Oct 6.

In addition, Tendulkar, Sehwag and Amla are also short-listed for the Test Player of the Year alongside South Africa’s Dale Steyn at the seventh annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).

Tendulkar is also in contention for the ODI Player of the Year award as he is short-listed in that category with the Australian duo of Shane Watson and Ryan Harris as well as South Africa’s AB de Villiers.

For the ‘Twenty20 International Performance of the Year’ New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum has been short-listed alongside Australia’s Michael Hussey, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena and South Africa’s Ryan McLaren.

This year’s LG ICC Awards includes nine individual prizes, including the new LG People’s Choice Award and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year besides the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award.

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 players such as India’s Ravi Shastri, Matthew Hayden of Australia, Angus Fraser of England and Zimbabwe’s Duncan Fletcher.

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

Short-lists of nominees (in alphabetical order) –

Individual Awards

Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla (SA), Virender Sehwag (India), Graeme Swann (England), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)

Test Player of the Year: Hashim Amla (SA), Virender Sehwag (India), Dale Steyn (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (India)

ODI Player of the Year: Ryan Harris (Australia), Sachin Tendulkar (India), AB de Villiers (SA), Shane Watson (Australia)

Emerging Player: Umar Akmal (Pakistan), Steven Finn (England), Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka), Tim Paine (Australia),

Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year: Ryan ten Doeschate (The Netherlands), Trent Johnson (Ireland), Kevin O’Brien (Ireland), Mohammed Shahzad (Afganistan)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Michael Hussey (Australia), Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka), Ryan McLaren (South Africa), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand)

Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Katherine Brunt (England), Shelley Nitschke (Australia)Ellyse Perry (Australia), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies),

Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Tony Hill, Simon Taufel

Spirit of Cricket: India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe