Smith captain of World Team

2008-09-10 21:05

Dubai - Proteas skipper Graeme Smith has been named as captain of the ICC's World Test Team of the Year, as chosen by a specially appointed independent selection panel chaired by West Indian batting legend Clive Lloyd.

Two other South Africans, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn have also been included in the side.

Herschelle Gibbs is the only South African to have made the ICC ODI Team of the Year, captained by Australia's Ricky Ponting.

The announcement were made at the LG ICC Awards celebration at The Westin Hotel, Dubai. Presented in association with Fica, the awards recognise the best international players of the past 12 months.

World Test Team of the Year 2008 is as follows (in batting order):

Graeme Smith (SA, captain), Virender Sehwag (Ind, Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL, wicketkeeper), Brett Lee (Aus), Ryan Sidebottom (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), 12th man: Stuart Clark (Aus)

Six countries are represented in the 12-man line-up and three players - Kevin Pietersen of England and the Sri Lanka pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan - also appeared in the World Test Team of the Year in 2007. Sangakkara and Muralitharan also appeared in the Test Team of the Year for 2006 as well.

Australia's Ricky Ponting is selected as ODI captain for second year in a row and named in the team for third year running

The ICC World ODI Team of the Year is (in batting order):

Hershelle Gibbs (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Ricky Ponting (Aus, captain), Yunus Khan (Pak), Andrew Symonds (Aus), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind, wicketkeeper), Farveez Maharoof (SL), Daniel Vettori (NZ, Brett Lee (Aus), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Nathan Bracken (Aus), 12th man: Salman Butt (Pak)

Six countries are represented in the 12-man line-up and two players - Ricky Ponting of Australia and India's Sachin Tendulkar - also appeared in the World ODI Team of the Year in 2007. Ponting appeared in the ODI Team of the Year for 2006 as well while Andrew Symonds had previously been named in the 2005 team.

- News24