History
The ICC Award functions are held at different venues across the cricket playing nations between September to October every year. The 2004 inaugural ICC Awards were held at London on 7th September and incorporated all One Day and Test Matches played between 1st August 2003 and 31st July 2004. The most valuable Player of the Year award was awarded to Rahul Dravid of the Indian cricket team. The following years the event was organized in Sydney, Australia in 2005 where Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis shared the Player of the Year award; Mumbai, India in 2006 where Ricky Ponting won the Player of the Year. The same year two new categories were added to the awards for the best women’s player which was won by Australia’s Karen Rolton and the Captain of the Year Award which was won by Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene. The 2007 ICC Awards saw another addition in the form of Associate Player of the Year Award to encourage associate nations of the ICC which was won by Thomas Odoyo of Kenya while Ricky Ponting once again won the Player of the Year award. The 2008 ICC awards were held at Dubai, UAE and Shivnarine Chanderpaul won the Player of the Year award.
Methodology
The players are judged on their performances from the 1st of August to the 31st of July every year. The teams are asked to send two names as nominations for the awards. The ICC player of the Year, Test player of the Year, ODI player of the Year and the Emerging player of the year are shortlisted from the nominations send by teams by the elite selection committee comprising of former players and cricketing legends. The final winners are chosen by a bench of 56 selectors comprising captains of all test playing nations, referees and umpires, cricket correspondents and former players.
Categories
The ICC Awards categories as of 2008 are:
• Player of the Year • Test Player of the Year • One day International Player of the Year • Twenty20 International Performer of the Year • Associate Player of the Year • Emerging Player of the Year • Women’s Cricketer of the Year • Umpire of the Year • Spirit of Cricket (Awarded to the best team based on their spirit and respect for their opponents, team, captain, umpires, values) • Captain of the Year
Apart from these awards, the best 11 test players and 11 One day International players are named to the ICC World Test XI and the ICC World One day XI teams respectively.