Kohli, Mithali nominated for top ICC awards

Dubai, Nov 5 (IANS) Dashing Indian batsman Virat Kohli was Wednesday nominated for the ICC One-Day International (ODI) Cricketer of the year while India captain Mithali Raj was nominated for two awards -- the ICC Women’s ODI as well as T20I Cricketer of the Year.

However, no other Indian was selected for any of the other major award categories of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Kohli will be competing for the award against South Africans Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn, who have also been shortlisted. De Villiers won the award in 2010 while Kohli won it in 2012.

For the Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year award, two former winners have been shortlisted -- England captain Charlotte Edwards, winner in 2008, and two-time winner Stafanie Taylor of the West Indies. They are joined by No.1 ranked batter Mithali Raj and England wicketkeeper-batter Sarah Taylor.

There will be a new winner of the Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year after the previous two awards were won by England’s Taylor. The players shortlisted this year are Edwards of England, Meg Lanning of Australia, India’s Mithali and West Indies’ Taylor.

Mithali is one of the seven cricketers who have been nominated for two awards. The others are de Villiers, Edwards, Mitchell Johnson, Angelo Mathews, Kumar Sangakkara and Taylor.

This year marks the 11th year of the ICC Awards and the winners will be announced Nov 14. The voting period for the awards was from August 2013 to September 2014.

The individual player awards were shortlisted by an academy of top cricket personalities from around the world after the long-list nominations were made by a five-person ICC selection panel led by former India captain and chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Anil Kumble.

Shortlist of nominees:

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year: AB de Villiers (SA), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Angelo Mathews (SL), Kumar Sangakkara (SL)

ICC Test Cricketer of the Year: Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Angelo Mathews (SL), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), David Warner (Aus)

ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year: Quinton de Kock (SA), AB de Villiers (SA), Virat Kohli (Ind), Dale Steyn (SA)

ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year: Charlotte Edwards (Eng), Mithali Raj (Ind), Sarah Taylor (Eng), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year: Corey Anderson (NZ), Gary Ballance (Eng), Jimmy Neesham (NZ), Ben Stokes (Eng)

ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year: Calum MacLeod (Scot), Preston Mommsen (Scot), Mohammad Nabi (Afg), Samiullah Shenwari (Afg)

ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Alex Hales (Eng) - 116 not out (64b, 11x4, 6x6) v Sri Lanka (WT20), 27 Mar 2014; Aaron Finch (Aus) -156 (63b, 11x4, 14x6) v England, 29 August 2013; Rangana Herath (SL) - 3.3-2-3-5 v NZ (WT20), 31 Mar 2014

ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year: Charlotte Edwards (Eng), Meg Lanning (Aus), Mithali Raj (Ind), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year: All 12 members of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires have been nominated