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Bangalore:
Sachin Tendulkar won the ‘Player of the Year’ award while Virender
Sehwag was voted ‘Test Player of the Year’ in the International
Cricket Council’s award ceremony here Wednesday.
Tendulkar became the seventh player to win the coveted Sir
Garfield Sobers Trophy and was short-listed from among Virender
Sehwag, Hashim Amla and Graeme Swann.
Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint
winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine
Chanderpaul (2008) and Mitchell Johnson (2009) are the previous
winners.
Tendulkar also became the first-ever recipient of the LG People’s
Choice Award.
“It’s fantastic to win this award, I’m really excited to have won
two awards and this last season for the entire team has been
really special.
“I think right from the start of the season when we won in Sri
Lanka and I scored a hundred in the finals and from there on the
season took off for us. We became number one in the Test rankings,
something we all wanted to achieve and we’ve been able to maintain
our performances in the last 10 months.
During the voting period (Aug 24, 2009 to Aug 10, 2010), the
37-year-old from Mumbai played in 10 Tests, striking 1,064 runs,
including six centuries, at an average of 81.84.
Tendulkar also played in 17 ODI matches in the time, scoring 914
runs that also included the master batsman’s record-breaking
double-century against South Africa in Gwalior.
ICC President Sharad Pawar congratulated Tendulkar: “Sachin
Tendulkar has been the focal point of Indian cricket now for some
20 years and over the past year his superb batting and hard work
has continued to illustrate his importance in the India team
batting line-up. Sachin’s statistics for the last 12 months show
how worthy a winner of this accolade he is,” said Pawar.
Sehwag beat strong contenders — teammate Tendulkar and the South
African duo of Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla — to claim the first ICC
award of his career.
Sehwag made 1,282 runs with an impressive average of 85.46 in the
10 Tests. He scored six centuries and four half-centuries.
“It’s fantastic to win the award to take over the title from
Gautam Gambhir.
“I try to play the best I can in Test cricket and play the same
way I do in every format of the game. I’m a huge fan of Test
cricket and I love to play it more than Twenty20 or one-day
cricket.”
South Africa’s AB de Villiers, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardena,
Australia’s Michael Hussey and England’s Andrew Strauss were also
contenders for the award.
The award, which was included for the first time, was chosen by
cricket fans around the world.
South Africa’s AB de Villiers won the ODI Player of the Year
award, surpassing India’s Sachin Tendulkar and the Australia duo
of Shane Watson and Ryan Harris.
New Zealand won ICC Spirit of Cricket Award for second year in a
row.
England fast bowler Steven Finn was voted the ICC Emerging Player
of the Year award.
The 21-year-old, who played in six Test matches in the voting
period, took 27 wickets at an average of 21.85.
Australia all-rounder Shelley Nitschke was named Women’s Cricketer
of the Year
ICC also announced the World Test Team of the Year and ODI Team of
the Year
An independent selection panel, chaired by West Indies legend
Clive Lloyd, comprising former players, respected members of the
media, an elite umpire and an elite match referee voted for the
awards.
Test Team of the Year (in batting order): Virender Sehwag (Ind),
Simon Katich (Aus), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Hashim Amla (SA),
Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Jacques Kallis (SA), Mahendra Singh Dhoni
(India, wicket-keeper), Graeme Swann (Eng), James Anderson (Eng),
Dale Steyn (SA), Doug Bollinger (Aus).
World ODI Team of the Year (in batting order): Sachin Tendulkar (Ind),
Shane Watson (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), AB de Villiers (SA),
Paul Collingwood (Eng), Ricky Ponting (Aus, captain), Mahendra
Singh Dhoni (India, wicket-keeper), Daniel Vettori (NZ), Stuart
Broad (Eng), Doug Bollinger (Aus), Ryan Harris (Aus).
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