Herath, Sangakkara win top honours at SLC awards

A rich year in Tests earned Rangana Herath the top prize in Sri Lanka Cricket's annual awards, for the first time in his career. Herath got the nod ahead of last year's Best Cricketer and current ICC cricketer of the Year, Kumar Sangakkara, who took home the People's Player of the Year award for the fourth year running. Sangakkara has also won the ICC's People's Choice award for the last two years. Herath and Sangakkara won the Best Test Bowler and Best Test Batsman awards respectively.

Herath took 46 Test wickets at 22.13 during the period under consideration, and had been the top wicket-taker in the world in 2012. He also became the third Sri Lankan to 200 Tests wickets during the Bangladesh series in March. Sangakkara, meanwhile, hit 441 runs in the only two Tests he played in 2013, including three centuries in four innings.

Tillakaratne Dilshan won the award for Best ODI batsman, while Lasith Malinga was given the nod for Best ODI Bowler. Angelo Mathews was the ODI Allrounder of the Year, with Dinesh Chandimal picking up the Emerging Cricketer of the Year for the second year in a row.

Sri Lanka Women's team captain Shashikala Siriwardene bagged the top award for women in a groundbreaking year for the women's team. She was also awarded ODI Allrounder of the Year, while Deepika Rasangika was Best Women's Batsman in ODIs and Chamani Seneviratna took home the bowling prize. The Sri Lanka women's team had caused the upset of the women's World Cup in February, when they defeated England by one wicket, and went on to place fifth at the tournament.

In domestic cricket, Kaushal Silva, who top scored in the first-class tournament, was SLC's Best Premier League batsman, with top wicket-taker Malinda Pushpakumara nabbing the first-class bowling award. Dilruwan Perera was selected as Best Allrounder, while Sri Lanka players Kusal Perera and Ajantha Mendis also took home domestic cricket honours.