ICC Awards

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become the fifth player to be named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year at the ICC Awards ceremony in Dubai. Chanderpaul, who also made the shortlist last year, fought off competition from other nominees Mahela Jayawardene from Sri Lanka, as well as South Africa’s Graeme Smith and Dale Steyn to take the top award.
Steyn had the consolation of taking the Test Player of the Year award, while India’s one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the ODI Player of the Year award.

Yuvraj Singh became the inaugural winner of the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year Award in recognition of his amazing six sixes in one over off Stuart Broad during the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa last September.

Ajantha Mendis, Sri Lanka’s 23-year-old spin star, won the Emerging Player of the Year award. With his mesmerising brand of spin bowling, Mendis has exploded on to the international scene in recent months. In just three Tests against India in July and August, he claimed an amazing 26 wickets at an average of 18.38.

Australian umpire, Simon Taufel, was named as Umpire of the Year for the fifth successive time. Taufel, 37, received his votes from the captains of the ten Full Member nations, as well as the eight-man elite panel of ICC match referees. “I’m delighted to win this award but I don’t set this as a goal at the start of a season,” he said.

ICC Awards 2008