|
September
10, 2008
 Sri
Lanka's Mystery Spinner has grabbed the ICC Emerging Player
award through his destructive performances in both ODIs and
Tests in the last couple of months or so. The 23-year-old was
way above the rest of the other nominees for the award which
included Ishant Sharma, Stuart Broad and Morne Morkel.
Ajantha Mendis completely overshadowed
Muttiah Muralitharan in a 3-Test Series against India followed
up by a 5-ODI Series. Mendis first hit headlines by taking a
6-wicket haul against India in the Asia Cup Final. In the
following Test Series, he bamboozled some of the great players
of spin bowling -
Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly to go
onto take 26 wickets in what was only his Debut Test Series!
Interestingly Mendis was given the award by his own Skipper
Mahela Jayawardene and on receiving the award said "I am
delighted to win the award. It is an honour to play for Sri
Lanka and I hope to continue playing for my country for a long
time to come." The Emerging Player of the Year award is given
to players under the age of 26 and should not have played more
than five Tests and/or 10 ODIs before the start of the voting
period.
The Umpire of the Year award for the fifth
time in a row has gone to Australian Simon Taufel. The Women's
Cricketer of the Year went to England's Captain Charlotte
Edwards while the 'Spirit of Cricket Award' was won for the
second time in a row by Sri Lanka. There was an award for the
Associate Player of the Year which went to Dutch all rounder
Ryan ten Doeschate.
The ICC also named the Test Team of the Year
and the ODI Team of the Year. Graeme Smith was named as
Captain of the Test Team and Ponting as the Captain of the One
Day Team of the Year.
ICC Test Team of the Year:
Graeme Smith (SA, Captain),
Virender Sehwag (Ind),
Mahela Jayawardene (SL),
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
(WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng),
Jacques Kallis (SA),
Kumar Sangakkara (SL, WK),
Brett Lee (Aus),
Ryan Sidebottom (Eng),
Dale Steyn (SA),
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL) 12th
Man: Stuart Clark (Aus)
ICC ODI Team of the Year:
Hershelle Gibbs (SA), Sachin
Tendulkar (Ind), Ricky Ponting
(Aus, Captain), Younis Khan
(Pak), Andrew Symonds (Aus),
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind,
WK), Farveez Maharoof (SL),
Daniel Vettori (NZ),
Brett Lee (Aus),
Mitchell Johnson (Aus),
Nathan Bracken (Aus) 12th
Man: Salman Butt (Pak)
|
