Six players nominated in three categories at LG ICC Awards 2012

Dubai, Aug.13 (ANI): Six players have been nominated in three different categories for the LG ICC Awards 2012.

They include Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal, South African batsman Hashim Amla, Australian captain Michael Clarke, Sri Lankan batsman-cum wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara, England opener Alastair Cook and West Indian female cricketer Stafanie Taylor.

The six players all feature in the ICC Cricketer of the Year, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, long list, while the male nominees are all nominated in both the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year and ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year long lists.

Taylor on the other hand features in the ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year and ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year-long lists.

It is the first year the men's and women's voting academy and awards have become fully integrated, and Taylor becomes the first female to be long-listed for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy at the ninth annual LG ICC Awards, which will be held on 15 September in Colombo ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012.

This year's LG ICC Awards includes 11 individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year.

For the third 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 - Kumar Sangakkara, Sachin Tendulkar, Vernon Philander, Jacques Kallis and James Anderson - 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 31 August at www.facebook.com/cricketicc.

"The LG ICC Awards presents a wonderful opportunity for the ICC, along with thousands of cricket fans, to acknowledge and reward the brilliant performances of the world's best cricketers," said ICC Chief Executive David Richardson.

"It is also a chance to look back on some of the great feats witnessed in the past year in international cricket across FTP Test and ODI series, numerous Associate and Affiliate Member fixtures, including the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2012 plus the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in 2011. This will be the ninth edition of the Awards and once again the voting academy will face a tough task in deciding who will be victorious on the night," he added.

A five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd made the long-lists of nominations.

The panel also includes former international players Clare Connor of England, Tom Moody of Australia, Carl Hooper of West Indies and Sri Lanka's Marvan Atapattu.

The individual player awards will be selected by an academy of 32 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.

This year sees the integration of the selection and voting panels for the women's awards and sees the creation of two women's awards, ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year and ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year.

There are 11 nominees for the ICC Men's Twenty20 International Performance of the Year include players from the men's teams of England, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

All members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees nominated the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award Long List.

The 10 Full Member captains, along with the Elite Panel umpires and match referees, ultimately vote upon this award.

This year's five nominees for the Spirit of Cricket Award are nominated due to: "An action, moment, gesture or decision on the field of play of International cricket during the specified voting period which best reflects the Spirit of Cricket".

The nominees include South Africa's Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, Pakistan's Mohammad Hafeez, West Indies' Kieron Pollard and New Zealand's Daniel Vettori.

Information on why each of these players were nominated can be found on the ICC website.

The captains and the match referees, based on the umpires' performance statistics, vote the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year.

There is also an ICC Emerging Cricketer 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 ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer 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 once again, this time with six names on the list, while Netherlands, Afghanistan, UAE and Canada have one each.

Based on the period between 4 August 2011 and 6 August 2012, the LG ICC Awards 2012 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 World Twenty20 Qualifier 2012 held in the UAE, the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in Bangladesh in 2011, various rounds of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, as well as numerous Pepsi ICC World Cricket League and Championship fixtures, plus several bilateral Test and ODI series.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its ninth year and this year it will be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004 and 2011), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009), Dubai (2008) and Bengaluru (2010). (ANI)