No ICC award for Pakistan; Sangakkara grabs three

Written by WebDesk | September 16, 2012 | 0

Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Cricket Council (ICC) awards ended here on Saturday in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka with Lankans dominating the awards while Pakistan failed to achieve any award.Pakistan’s Twenty20 captain Mohammad Hafeez was nominated for spirit of the cricket award along with Aleem Dar for the best umpire of the year.

Outstanding Sri Lankan wicket-keeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara stole the show with a hat-trick of ICC awards. The 34-year-old batsman-wicketkeeper carried away the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named Cricketer of the Year. He also won the Test Cricketer of the Year and People’s Choice awards.

.Sangakkara scored 1,444 runs with five centuries in 14 Tests and 1,457 runs in 37 one-day internationals with three hundreds during the year. The Sri Lankan fought off stiff competition from South Africans Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, and Australian Michael Clarke, to win the trophy.

Sangakakara said that ”This is an amazing honour and I’ve seen the people who have won it before me and the nominees too… to be named alongside them is wonderful.”

”I admire them greatly and even more so when I looked up at their records on the screen this evening. It’s great to be amongst them, but now, to receive this honour this evening, is simply fantastic,” Sangakkara added.

Virat Kohli of India was named the One-day Cricketer of the Year for scoring 1,733 runs in 31 matches with eight centuries. Kohli said that ”I think I have tried to keep things as simple as possible and it’s worked for me on the field.”

”This year has been a learning curve along the way from the seniors in the team. It’s been an all-round effort and I’m very happy to have won this award,” Kohli added.

West Indies spinner Sunil Narine, 24, won the Emerging Cricketer of the Year award for taking 12 wickets in three Tests and 28 in 15 one-day internationals. Narine said that ”This award means a lot for me and it’s an encouragement to keep going and continue to improve.” ”I dedicate this award to my father,” he added.

Ireland’s spinner George Dockrell was named Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year ahead of teammates Kevin O’Brien, Ed Joyce and Paul Stirling, and Afghanistan’s Dawlat Zadran.

Dockrell said that ”It’s good to be setting high standards and hopefully I will keep performing well for Ireland in the future.”

South African Richard Levi’s unbeaten 117 off 51 balls against New Zealand was judged the Best Performance in Twenty20 Internationals.