Indian cricketers dominated the ICC awards night here with both Tests and One-day individual awards coming their way besides also having a strong presence in the Test and ODI Teams of the Year.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was not present at the glittering awards ceremony, was named ODI Player of the Year for the second time in a row while also featuring in both Tests and One-day ICC World Teams of the Year both as wicketkeeper and captain of the sides.
Young Gautam Gambhir also covered himself in glory by picking up the best Test Player of Year award, besides also featuring in the World Test Team of the Year.
Apart from Dhoni and Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh (as 12th man) also featured in the world Test Team of the Year.
The World ODI Team of the Year has three Indians with Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh being the other two, besides Dhoni.
However, the most coveted Cricketer of Year Award for the
Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, went to Australian Mitchell Johnson who fought off stiff competition from Dhoni, Gambhir and England captain Andrew Strauss in a four-way race.
During the voting period of August 13, 2008 to August 24, 2009, the 27-year-old Johnson played 17 Test matches, taking 80 wickets, which was easily the highest number by any Test bowler in the period.
Johnson's best match bowling figures were 11-159 against South Africa in Perth in December of last year and his economy-rate over the whole period was a mere 3.12.
His batting skills shouldn't be forgotten either for in the last year he has managed to score a total of 632 runs for Australia, including a century and three half-centuries, to register an average of 30.09.
Johnson also played 16 ODI matches in this time taking 28 wickets at an average of 24.25 and an economy rate of 5.06, his best haul being 4-34 against South Africa in April of this year. He is
currently ranked third in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers and is 11th in the ODI rankings.
Johnson follows in the footsteps of India's Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff of England and South Africa's Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting of Australia (2006 and 2007) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008) to take the top award.
Interestingly, Gambhir won the Test Player of the Year Award by beating Johnson, Strauss and Sri Lankan Thilan Samaraweera.
During the 12-month voting period, Gambhir put in some remarkable performances with the bat, making 1,269 runs with an impressive average of 84.60 in the eight Test matches he played. He scored five centuries and four half-centuries during the period.
Dhoni beat off tough competition from team-mates Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag as well as West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul to take the ODI Player of the Year Award.
During the voting
period, Dhoni played 24 ODIs and scored 967 runs at an average of 60.43 and at a rate of 86.63 runs per 100 balls faced. In that time he hit nine fifties making sure he led his team from the front.
Also in that time, wicketkeeper Dhoni played a hand in 26 dismissals (18 catches and eight stumpings) and led his country to victory in 17 of the 24 matches in which he played.
He is currently ranked number one in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, comfortably ahead of the next best.
Dhoni also features in both the Test and ODI Teams of the Year as both wicketkeeper and captain of both sides, as selected by the expert five-man panel.
The selection panel for the awards was chaired by former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd. Other members of the panel included Anil Kumble (India), Bob Taylor (England), Mudassar Nazar (Pakistan) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand).
Pakistani Aleem Dar won ICC Umpire of the
Year Award and broke the monopoly of Australian Simon Taufel who had been the winner of the award since its ince
The Awards:Cricketer of the Year: Mitchell Johnson (Australia)
Test Player of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India)
One-Day Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India)
ICC World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Thilan Samraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Aus), MS Dhoni (India-captain), Shakib al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA) and Harbhajan Singh ( 12th man; India).
ICC World ODI Team of the Year: Virender Sehwag (India), Chris Gayle (West Indies), Kevin
Pietersen (England), Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), Yuvraj Singh (India), Martin Guptill (New Zealand), MS Dhoni (Ind; capt., wk), Andrew Flintoff (England), Nuwan Kulasekara (Sri Lanka), Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka), Umar Gul (Pakistan). 12th man: Thilan Thushara (Sri Lanka).
Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Tillekratne Dilshan (SL).
Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan)
Spirit of Team Award: New Zealand
Emerging Player of Year: Peter Siddle (Australia)
Associate and Affiliate Player of Year Award: William Porterfield (Ireland)
Women Cricketer of Year: Claire Taylor (England).
The winners of the LG ICC Awards 2009
Cricketer of the Year - Mitchell Johnson
