Ponting and Jayawardene lead ICC Awards nominations

Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, and Mahela Jayawardene, his Sri Lanka counterpart, have both been nominated in four categories for the 2007 ICC Awards.

Eight other players - Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kevin Pietersen, Shaun Pollock and Mohammad Yousuf - were listed for three individual prizes. The emerging player nominees include Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Ross Taylor, Chris Tremlett and Ravi Bopara.

"There is so much great cricket to reflect upon during the voting period," Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said. "There were runs galore from the likes of Ponting, Hayden, Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara and Yousuf, and outstanding bowling displays by established champions such as McGrath, Muralitharan and Shane Warne and newcomers like Tait and Monty Panesar." Ponting and Jayawardene are also the sole nominees for the Captain of the Year.

The ICC released a long list of candidates for various awards and the selections were made by a five-man committee led by Sunil Gavaskar and including Chris Cairns, Gary Kirsten, Iqbal Qasim and Alec Stewart. The panel also chose the Test and ODI Teams of the Year.

The nominees for the individual categories will be voted on by a 56-person panel comprising the captains of the ten Full Member nations, the ten umpires in the elite panel, eight match referees in the elite panel, and 28 former players and members of the media. The group will also decide on the Spirit of Cricket Award, which is given to the ODI team that has played according to the spirit of the game.

The ICC has introduced the Associate ODI Player of the Year award for this year's ceremony. Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland were invited to nominate players for the prize.

For the Women's Cricketer of the Year, each Full Member was eligible to pick two performers. The nominees will be voted on by 17 former cricketers and key figures in the women's game. The nominations for the Umpire of the Year were made by the ICC.

The ICC will announce a shortlist for the awards on September 4, while the final winners will be announced in Johannesburg on September 10, a day before the opening match of the Twenty20 World Championship.

The nominations

Test Player
Mohammad Asif (Pak)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Stuart Clark (Aus)
Matthew Hayden (Aus)
Michael Hussey (Aus)
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Zaheer Khan (Ind)
Anil Kumble (Ind)
Brian Lara (WI)
Glenn McGrath (Aus)
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)
Makhaya Ntini (SA)
Monty Panesar (Eng)
Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
Shaun Pollock (SA)
Ricky Ponting (Aus)
Kumar Sangakkara (SL)
Ryan Sidebottom (Eng)
Shane Warne (Aus)
Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)

ODI Player
Shane Bond (NZ)
Mark Boucher (SA)
Nathan Bracken (Aus)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Stuart Clark (Aus)
Michael Clarke (Aus)
Matthew Hayden (Aus)
Michael Hussey (Aus)
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Jacques Kallis (SA)
Brett Lee (Aus)
Glenn McGrath (Aus)
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)
Jacob Oram (NZ)
Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
Shaun Pollock (SA)
Ricky Ponting (Aus)
Yuvraj Singh (Ind)
Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)

Emerging Player
Ravinder Bopara (Eng)
Shakib Al Hasan (Bang)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Mushfiqur Rahim (Bang)
Shaun Tait (Aus)
Ross Taylor (NZ)
Chris Tremlett (Eng)

Cricketer of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Matthew Hayden (Aus)
Michael Hussey (Aus)
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Jacques Kallis (SA)
Glenn McGrath (Aus)
Muttiah Muralitharan (SL)
Kevin Pietersen (Eng)
Ricky Ponting (Aus)
Kumar Sangakkara (SL)
Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)
Shaun Pollock (SA)

Captain of the Year
Mahela Jayawardene (SL)
Ricky Ponting (Aus)

Associate ODI Player of the Year
Ashish Bagai (Can)
Andre Botha (Ire)
John Davison (Can)
Trent Johnston (Ire)
Dwayne Leverock (Ber)
Kyle McCallan (Ire)
Tanmay Mishra (Ken)
Eoin Morgan (Ire)
Ashif Mulla (Can)
Niall O'Brien (Ire)
Thomas Odoyo (Ken)
Peter Ongondo (Ken)
Irving Romaine (Ber)
Abdool Samad (Can)
Ryan ten Doeschate (Neth)
Steve Tikolo (Ken)
Hiren Varaiya (Ken)
Ryan Watson (Sco)

Umpire of the Year
Mark Benson
Steve Bucknor
Daryl Harper
Simon Taufel

Women's Cricketer of the Year
Caitriona Beggs (Ire)
Holly Colvin (Eng)
Rumeli Dhar (Ind)
Maria Fahey (NZ)
Jhulan Goswami (Ind)
Ashlyn Kilowan (SA)
Johmari Logtenberg (SA)
Urooj Mumtaz Khan (Pak)
Shelley Nitschke (Aus)
Rebecca Rolls (NZ)
Sajida Shah (Pak)
Lisa Sthalekar (Aus)
Claire Taylor (Eng)