Australia’s Ricky Ponting and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene lead the nominations for this year’s International Cricket Council (ICC) annual awards, figuring in as many as four individual categories.
The 32-year-old Ponting, who led Australia to an unprecedented hat-trick of World Cup titles in West Indies in April, is in the race to retain both the Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year awards.
He has also been nominated for one-day international (ODI) Player of the Year and Captain of the Year awards as per the preliminary list released by ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed at a news conference on Tuesday.
Jayawardene, who led his country to the World Cup final this year, has also been nominated in the above four categories.
The Sri Lanka skipper, chosen Captain of the Year last year, is the only other contender for the honour besides Ponting.
The shortlist was made by a five-man selection panel headed by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar for the one-year period starting from August 9 2006.
The awards function will be held in Johannesburg on September 10, a day before the start of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup.
Eight players are in the race for three awards each.
Australia’s retired paceman, Glenn McGrath, and batsmen Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden are on the lists for Cricketer of the Year, Test Player of the Year and ODI Player of the Year.
The batting trio of England’s Kevin Pietersen, Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf and West Indies Shivnarine Chanderpaul as well as Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and South Africa all-rounder Shaun Pollock are also contenders in the above three categories.
Australian Simon Taufel is in line for the Umpire of the Year accolade for the fourth straight year.
Australian pacemen Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson are among seven who have been nominated for the Emerging Player award while 13 are in the race for the Women’s Player of the Year award.
The ICC has also introduced an award for ODI Player of the Year from among Associate member countries. — Reuters