Smith, Steyn vie for top awards

2008-09-08 12:04

Johannesburg - Dale Steyn and Graeme Smith will vie for the top LG ICC award - the Cricketer of the Year award - when the 2008 version of international cricket's most prestigious "Oscar evening" is held in Dubai on Wednesday.

It is a reflection of the outstanding form that the Proteas have displayed during the past 12 months that they provide two of the four nominees for the top award. The other two contenders are Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies and Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardena.

It also means there will be a new name on this trophy as none of the four has ever won it before.

Players who have secured the game's top individual honour in the past are Rahul Dravid of India (2004), England's Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis of South Africa (joint winners in 2005) and Australia captain Ricky Ponting (back-to-back winner in 2006 and 2007).

Steyn is the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket for the past year while Smith has led South Africa to victory in five out of their last six Test series with the other one (in India) being drawn.

He has also contributed five individual centuries, a world record first-wicket partnership which also enabled him to become the only South African to score four Test double centuries and was until recently the world's No 1 ranked ODI batsman.

Compete

His unbeaten 150 in the fourth innings of the recent third Test against England at Edgbaston to clinch the series win was one of the 10 highest of all time in a fourth innings successful runs chase.

South Africa also has two candidates for Test cricketer of the year in Steyn and Jacques Kallis (six Test centuries in the period under review) who will again compete with Chanderpaul and Jayawardena.

A fourth South African to be nominated is fast bowler Morne Morkel in the Emerging Player category. He faces tough opposition from Sri Lanka's new mystery spinner, Ajantha Mendis, England all-rounder Stuart Broad and Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma.

South Africa's Rudi Koertzen is one of five nominations as umpire of the year while Cape Town-born Ryan ten Doeschate, who now plays for the Netherlands, has been nominated in the Associate Player of the Year category.

The shortlists for the LG ICC Awards 2008 are as follows: Cricketer of the Year - Shivnarine Chanderpaul Mahela Jayawardena Graeme Smith Dale Steyn.

Test Player of the Year - Shivnarine Chanderpaul Mahela Jayawardena Jacques Kallis Dale Steyn.

ODI Player of the Year - Nathan Bracken Mahendra Singh Dhoni Sachin Tendulkar Mohammad Yousuf.

Emerging Player of the Year - Stuart Broad Ajantha Mendis Morne Morkel Ishant Sharma.

Associate Player of the Year - Ryan ten Doeschate Alex Obanda Niall O'Brien Thomas Odoyo.

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Chris Gayle Mahendra Singh Dhoni Brett Lee Yuvraj Singh.

Women's Player of the Year - Nicola Browne Charlotte Edwards Lisa Sthalekar Claire Taylor.

Spirit of Cricket - Bangladesh New Zealand Sri Lanka West Indies.

Umpire of the Year - Mark Benson Aleem Dar Steve Davis Rudi Koertzen Simon Taufel.

- SAPA