Dubai: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and opener Virender Sehwag are among the nine cricketers who have been nominated for the October 6 ICC Awards 2010.
Nine players from four teams have each been nominated in three different categories for the award which is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru later this year.
Besides the Indian players, Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis from South Africa, Shane Watson and Doug Bollinger from Australia and Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene will feature prominently in the long-lists for the awards.
In addition, there are nine players who are nominated in two distinct categories.
"The ICC Awards are an opportunity for the ICC and FICA to acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable performances of the world's top players," said ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat.
"It is also a chance for followers of our great sport to reflect on some of the great cricketing feats they have witnessed over the past year. This will be the seventh time the awards have been handed out and picking the winners will not be an easy task for the voting academy," he said.
The seventh annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), includes nine individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year.
Also there will be an award for the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.
For the first time, this year's awards feature a new category, the People's Choice Award, which will be chosen by cricket fans around the world who will get a chance to vote for their favourite player online from a short-list of five cricketers selected by the ICC selection panel.
The long-lists of nominations were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd.
The panel also includes former international players Angus Fraser of England, Matthew Hayden of Australia, Ravi Shastri of India and Zimbabwe's Duncan Fletcher.
The ICC Awards ceremony is now in its seventh year and this year it will be held in Bengaluru, India. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009), Dubai (2008). PTI
