CA congratulates Australian cricketers and umpires on ICC Honours and Nominations
Cricket Australia today congratulated Michael Clarke on being named captain of the International Cricket Council's Test Team of the Year, as the ICC announced the short-lists for the coming LG ICC Awards 2012.
Clarke was named as the only Australian in the Test Team of the Year. The honour comes after a voting period in which he led his country in 14 Tests, winning nine, drawing three and losing two. In leading Australia to a 4-0 Vodafone Test Series whitewash of India earlier this year, Clarke amassed 626 runs at an average of 125.20 and has been widely praised for his tactical contribution to the captaincy thus far.
Clarke has also been short-listed for the individual awards of the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year. Young Victorian quick James Pattinson, who burst onto the international scene in the voting period, is short-listed for ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year. The outstanding performance of the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars has been recognised by the nomination of Lisa Sthalekar and Alyssa Healy in the ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year. In addition, Simon Taufel and Rod Tucker have been nominated for The David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year.
CA CEO James Sutherland said: "I'm delighted that Michael's contribution both as captain and player has been recognised by the panel who met to choose the Test Team of the Year and to make the nominations for all the other ICC annual awards. James Pattinson's contribution over the last 12 months has also been rightly rewarded with a nomination in the ICC Emerging Cricketer category. He's an exciting talent who will only improve with time. The consistent performances of the Southern Stars have resulted in the nominations for the experience of Lisa Sthalekar and the youthful promise of Alyssa Healy. It's a good day for Australian umpires too. For Simon Taufel and Rod Tucker to be nominated in their category reflects very well on the Australian umpiring system."
The panel of judges took into account international cricket played between 4 August 2011 and 6 August 2012, when formulating nominations for the LG ICC Awards 2012.
The David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year award was voted on by the 10 current Test captains and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and is partly based on the umpires' performance statistics.
There are six nominees this year including five-time winner Simon Taufel, three-time winner Aleem Dar, along with New Zealand's Billy Bowden, Sri Lanka's Kumar Dharmasena, England's Richard Kettleborough and Australia's Rodney Tucker.
The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its ninth year and this year it will be held in Colombo on 15 September. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004 and 2011), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009), Dubai (2008) and Bengaluru 2010.
