By BV Swagath
The ICC has announced a huge list of nominees for this year’s LG ICC Awards. The awards ceremony will be held on September 15th in Colombo just ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 2012. The ICC will be presenting 11 individual awards this time. Interestingly, there is a women cricketer who will be competing with some of the top stars of men’s cricket for the ICC Cricketer of the Year (which is named as the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy).
This is the first time ever that the ICC has integrated Women’s Cricket with Men’s Cricket for the ‘Cricketer of the Year’ award. The honour has gone to Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies Women to be nominated for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy alongside the likes of Saeed Ajmal, Hashim Amla, Stuart Broad, Michael Clarke, Alastair Cook, Virat Kohli and Kumar Sangakakara. Coming to Stafanie Taylor, she is a 21-year-old Jamaican who is an off-spinning all-rounder. Taylor has till date played 49 ODIs and 33 T20Is with good success with both the bat and the ball.
The ICC also has a ‘People's Choice Award’ which asks cricket fans all around the globe to vote on its facebook page for one of the five nominees: Kumar Sangakkara, Sachin Tendulkar, Vernon Philander, Jacques Kallis and James Anderson.
Following are the nominees announced by the ICC for various LG ICC Awards 2012:
ICC Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy): Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Hashim Amla (SA), Stuart Broad (Eng), Michael Clarke (Aus), Alastair Cook (Eng), Virat Kohli (Ind), Vernon Philander (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL) and Stafanie Taylor (West Indies Women)
ICC Test Cricketer of the Year: Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Hashim Amla (SA), Stuart Broad (Eng), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Michael Clarke (Aus), Alastair Cook (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Vernon Philander (SA), Matt Prior (Eng), Marlon Samuels (WI), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Dale Steyn (SA) and AB de Villiers (SA)
ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Shahid Afridi (Pak), Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Michael Clarke (Aus), Alastair Cook (Eng), MS Dhoni (Ind), Steven Finn (Eng), Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Shakib Al Hasan (Bang), Virat Kohli (Ind), Lasith Malinga (SL), Brendon McCullum (NZ), Morne Morkel (SA), Sunil Narine (WI), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Brendan Taylor (Zim) and Shane Watson (Aus)
ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Jess Cameron (Aus), Shanel Daley (WI), Lydia Greenaway (Eng), Anisa Mohammed (WI), Mithali Raj (Ind), Sarah Taylor (Eng), Stafanie Taylor (WI)
ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year: Jess Cameron (Aus), Shanel Daley (WI), Alyssa Healy (Aus), Anisa Mohammed (WI), Mithali Raj (Ind), Lisa Sthalekar (Aus), Sarah Taylor (Eng) and Stafanie Taylor (WI)
ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year: Trent Boult (NZ), Doug Bracewell (NZ), Dinesh Chandimal (SL), Pat Cummins (Aus), Nasir Hossain (Bang), Junaid Khan (Pak), Nathan Lyon (Aus), Tino Mawoyo (Zim), Sunil Narine (WI), James Pattinson (Aus), Lahiru Thirimanne (SL) and Matthew Wade (Aus)
ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year: Shaiman Anwar (UAE), Peter Borren (Neth), George Dockrell (Ire), Trent Johnston (Ire), Ed Joyce (Ire), John Mooney (Ire), Kevin O'Brien (Ire), Hiral Patel (Can), Paul Stirling (Ire), Dawlat Zadran (Afg)
ICC Men's Twenty20 International Performance of the Year:
Ravi Bopara (Eng) - 3.4-0-10-4 v West Indies, The Oval, 23 September 2011
Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) - 104no (57b, 12x4, 5x6) v Australia, Pallekele, 6 August 2011
Chris Gayle (WI) - 85no (52b, 7x4, 5x6) v New Zealand, Lauderhill, 30 June 2012
Martin Guptill (NZ) - 91no (54b, 5x4, 6x6) v Zimbabwe, Auckland, 11 February 2012
Mohammad Hafeez (Pak) - 2.2-0-10-4 v Zimbabwe, Harare, 16 September 2011
Alex Hales (Eng) - 99 (68b, 6x4, 4x6) v West Indies, Nottingham, 24 June 2012
Richard Levi (SA) - 117no (51b, 5x4. 13x6) v New Zealand, Auckland, 22 February 2012
Brendon McCullum (NZ) - 81no (46b, 5x4, 6x6) v Zimbabwe, Harare, 15 October 2011
Ajantha Mendis (SL) - 4-1-16-6 v Australia, Pallekele, 8 August 2011
Sunil Narine (WI) - 4-0-12-4 v New Zealand, Lauderhill, 1 July 2012
Elias Sunny (Bang) - 4-1-13-5 v Ireland, Belfast, 18 July 2012
ICC Spirit of Cricket Award: Mohammad Hafeez (Pak), Jacques Kallis (SA), Kieron Pollard (WI), Daniel Vettori (NZ) and AB de Villiers (SA)
ICC Umpire of the Year (David Shepherd Trophy): Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Kumar Dharmasena, Billy Doctrove, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Tony Hill, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel and Rod Tucker
LG People's Choice Award: James Anderson (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Vernon Philander (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL) and Sachin Tendulkar (Ind)
