Cook and Dhoni named captains of ICC teams of the year

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Posted: 12 years ago

(Reuters) - England captain Alastair Cook has received a welcome boost ahead of this week's Ashes clash against Australia after he was named skipper of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) test team of the year on Tuesday.

The left-handed opener's England team mates Graeme Swann and James Anderson were also included in the 11-man team while world number one test side South Africa were represented by four players.

South Africa paceman Dale Steyn was included in the test side for the sixth consecutive year, while two players each from Australia and India made up the remaining four slots.

Cook took over as captain after Andrew Strauss quit last year and led England to a series win in India, ending a barren run of 28 years, as well as home series victories over New Zealand and Australia in the year's first Ashes series.

England face Australia in the second test of the return Ashes series in Adelaide on Thursday, where the holders will be hoping to bounce back after being thrashed by 381 runs in the opener of the five-match series in Brisbane last month.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led India to the Champions Trophy victory in June, was named captain of ICC's one-day international team.

"It is always tough to decide on the test and ODI teams of the year, with so many worthy candidates to consider based on the players' performances between August 7 2012 and August 25 2013," ICC awards selection panel chairman Anil Kumble said in a statement.

"The selection panel had a lengthy debate on all the top performers during the performance period and a number of combinations were considered.

"The selectors did utilise a vast amount of statistics from the period under observation, but we also took into account other factors like the opposition, pitch conditions, match situation and the like.

"But when you have only 12 places to fill from a big group of world-class players, there will always be a few who will miss out."

DHONI SATISFIED

Dhoni, who found place in the 50-over side for the sixth successive year, also won the ICC's people's choice award ahead of Cook, Australia's Michael Clarke, Virat Kohli of India and South Africa's AB de Viliers.

"This is one of the awards that has given me tremendous satisfaction, since it comes from the key stakeholders of the game - the fans," Dhoni said in a statement.

"Recognition from the people who support and encourage us day in and day out, only inspires me to put in that much more, and go the extra mile for them. I would like to thank all those people who have voted in my favour."

Cook and Dhoni also made the short-list of nominees for the ICC cricketer of the year award along with Anderson, South Africa batsman Hashim Amla and Clarke.

Test team: Alastair Cook (Eng, captain), Cheteshwar Pujara (Ind), Hashim Amla (SA), Michael Clarke (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind), Graeme Swann (Eng)Dale Steyn (SA), James Anderson (Eng), Vernon Philander (SA). 12th Man: Ravichandran Ashwin (Ind)

ODI team: Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Shikhar Dhawan (Ind) Hashim Amla (SA), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), AB de Villiers (SA), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain), Ravindra Jadeja (Ind), Saeed Ajmal (Pak), Mitchell Starc (Aus), James Anderson (Eng), Lasith Malinga (SL). 12th Man: Mitchell McClenaghan (NZ) (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; Editing by John O'Brien)

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Posted: 12 years ago

Mahendra Singh Dhoni wins 2013 LG People's Choice Award

MUMBAI: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has won this year's LG People's Choice Award, thus becoming only the second Indian cricketer to win the coveted prize after just-retired Sachin Tendulkar.

Dhoni has now become only the third cricketer to win this award after Tendulkar, who was the first-ever recipient in 2010, and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who won it in 2011 and 2012.

Other nominees for this year's LG People's Choice Award were Australia's Michael Clarke, England's Alastair Cook, India's Virat Kohli, and South Africa's AB de Villiers.

BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel received the award from Howard Lee, Director Home Entertainment, LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd, on behalf of Dhoni, who is currently in South Africa with the India cricket team.

The award, which was introduced at the 2010 LG ICC Awards in Bengaluru, was voted upon by close to 188,000 cricket fans around the world. The voting opened on November 2 and closed at midnight on November 23, an ICC statement said.

The short list was nominated by an elite panel of cricket experts, which is headed by ICC Cricket Committee Chairman and former India captain Anil Kumble. Other members of the panel are England's Alec Stewart, New Zealand's Catherine Campbell, Pakistan's Waqar Younis and South Africa's Graeme Pollock.

The five players were nominated by the panel using the criteria set out by LG and the ICC.

This dictated that the nominees should have displayed some of the attributes regarded by LG as being in line with its corporate qualities such as innovation, dynamism, strength in decision-making, performing well under pressure and executing a plan to distinction, the statement read.

On winning the People's Choice award, Dhoni said: "This is one of the awards that has given me tremendous satisfaction, since it comes from the key stakeholders of the game - the fans.