Ricky Ponting's Australia received a boost ahead of the Twenty20 world championships starting yesterday when his team swept four of the five top ICC awards.
Ponting himself won two, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the cricketer of the year and the captain of the year award at a formal ceremony held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Monday night.
Matthew Hayden was named the one-day player of the year and fast bowler Shaun Tait, who missed out on the Twenty20 event due to injury, won the emerging player's award.
PHOTO: AFP
Australia picked up a fifth award away from the players when Simon Taufel was declared the best umpire for the fourth year in a row.
Prolific Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf prevented an Australian clean sweep by bagging the Test player of the year ward for scoring 944 runs in 10 innings at 94.40 during the voting period of August last year to August this year.
Ponting, who was voted player of the year for the second successive year, said he was honored to be feted by the cricket world.
PHOTO: AFP
"It's more of an eventful night than I thought it would be and I am honored," said Ponting. "It's a great achievement and something I will probably look back on this with a lot of pride."
Ponting led Australia to an Ashes whitewash, Champions Trophy victory and a third consecutive World Cup title during the past year.
"I was happy with the way I have gone about things during the past year and I think we have lifted ourselves to a new level as a team," Ponting said. "It has been an unbelievable 12 months of cricket and we should all be very proud with what we have achieved."
Ponting said he was looking forward to the Twenty20 tournament where Australia are placed in Group B alongside England and Zimbabwe.
"It would be nice to add another one to the cupboard but it is going to be a very open competition," he said.
Yousuf, who has been banned by Pakistan for joining the rebel Indian Cricket League, said he was delighted to be named the Test player of the year.
"This is the first time for a Pakistan player to win this award so I am particularly delighted with that," the 33-year-old said in a video message from Lahore.
"I thank Allah and my Pakistan team-mates. I also want to thank the ICC panel for voting for me," he said.
Mahela Jayawardene's Sri Lanka won the Spirit Of Cricket award, while Thomas Odoyo of Kenya was named the player of the year among non-Test nations.
Indian seamer Jhulan Goswami picked up the women's player of the year award, making up for the absence of any male compatriot among the nominees.
"It is special to win the award because none of our stars had been nominated," Goswami said. "I hope this award will give a fillip to the women's game in India."
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Spain are the favorites to win the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, but star player Aitana Bonmati’s illness ahead of the tournament raises another question mark around a side which, despite their obvious quality, are not unstoppable. Having claimed the last two Ballon d’Or awards, Barcelona midfielder Bonmati is the game’s biggest star at present, so her absence in the final days before the start of Euro 2025 is a major setback. The 27-year-old came down with a fever in training last week, and was subsequently hospitalized and diagnosed with viral meningitis. Bonmati was discharged on Sunday and joined up with
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
RSS