Sangakkara wins ICC Cricketer of Year Award
17 September, 2012
Kumar Sangakkara has won three awards, including the prestigious Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year at the annual ICC awards ceremony in Colombo on Saturday. Sangakkara also won the People's Choice prize, an honour he had received last year as well.
For Cricketer and Test Cricketer of the Year, Sangakkara was chosen ahead of South Africa's Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, and Australia captain Michael Clarke. He was prolific in both Tests and ODIs during the 12-month voting period ending in early August: in 14 Tests, he compiled 1,444 runs at an average of 60.16, including five centuries and five half-centuries, highlighted by a match-saving 211 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi; in 37 ODIs, he scored 1457 runs with three hundreds, and also completed 39 catches and three stumpings as a wicketkeeper. "This is an amazing honour and I've seen the people who have won it before me and the nominees too, to be named alongside them is wonderful," Sangakkara said after receiving the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for Cricketer of the Year from ICC president Alan Isaac. Previous winners of the Cricketer of the Year award include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009), Sachin Tendulkar (2010) and Jonathan Trott (2011). West Indies legend Brian Lara presented Sangakkara with the Test Cricketer award. Sangakkara missed out though on a third major gong when Virat Kohli was named ODI Cricketer of the Year, an award Sangakkara had won in 2011. Kohli won the award for his consistent performance over the last 12 months during which he played 31 ODIs and scored 1733 runs at an outstanding average of 66.65, including eight hundreds and six half-centuries. South Africa's Richard Levi took home the ICC's T20I Performance of the Year award for his knock of 117 not out off 51 balls against New Zealand, in Auckland, in February. That knock broke Chris Gayle's record for the fastest century in international T20s - Levi got to the mark in 45 balls. West Indies' offspinner Sunil Narine has been named the Emerging Player of the Year for 2012 at the ICC Awards ceremony in Colombo. He saw off competition from New Zealand's Doug Bracewell, Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal and Australia's James Pattinson to take the award. Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena has won the David Shepherd trophy for the Umpire of the Year at the ICC Awards ceremony in Colombo. It is the first time he has won this award. The other nominees were five-time winner Simon Taufel, three-time winner Aleem Dar, along with New Zealand's Billy Bowden, England's Richard Kettleborough and Australia's Rodney Tucker. Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand left-arm spinner, has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award, for a sporting gesture during a Test against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo last November. The match was heading to a tight finish, when Vettori accidentally collided with the non-striker Malcolm Waller during his follow-through. The clash hindered Waller from taking a single, and by that time the striker Regis Chakabva was too far down the track to get back. Though the wicketkeeper Reece Young took off the bails, Vettori immediately indicated that he had blocked Waller, and New Zealand decided to not appeal for Chakbva's wicket. Vettori's gesture earned him the award ahead of Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez and the South African pair of Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers. MS Dhoni had taken the award last year. George Dockrell, the Ireland left-arm spinner, has been named the ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year. He was chosen ahead of three of his team-mates Paul Stirling, Kevin O'Brien and Ed Joyce, and Afghanistan bowler Dawlat Zadran. Dockrell, 20, was the leading wicket-taker in the voting period - between 4 August 2011 and 6 August 2012 - taking 43 scalps in ODIs, T20Is and the Intercontinental Cup, the ICC's four-day tournament for top Associate and Affiliate sides. End. |
