Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads India's charge at ICC Awards

Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads India's charge at the LG ICC Awards 2008 with nominations in two categories, the International Cricket Council announced on Monday.

Dhoni, India's one-day and Twenty20 International (T20I) captain, is nominated for two prizes ---- the ODI Player of the Year and the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year ---- the latter for his captaincy in leading India to the inaugural title in South Africa last September.

The shortlists for the ICC Awards 2008 are as follows:

Cricketer of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Mahela Jayawardena
Graeme Smith
Dale Steyn

ODI Player of the Year
Nathan Bracken
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Sachin Tendulkar
Mohammad Yousuf

Test Player of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Mahela Jayawardena
Jacques Kallis
Dale Steyn

Emerging Player of the Year
Stuart Broad
Ajantha Mendis
Morne Morkel
Ishant Sharma

Associate Player of the Year
Ryan ten Doeschate
Alex Obanda
Niall O'Brien
Thomas Odoyo

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year
Chris Gayle
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Brett Lee
Yuvraj Singh

Women's Player of the Year
Nicola Browne
Charlotte Edwards
Lisa Sthalekar
Claire Taylor

Spirit of Cricket
Bangladesh
New Zealand
Sri Lanka
West Indies

Umpire of the Year
Mark Benson
Aleem Dar
Steve Davis
Rudi Koertzen
Simon Taufel

The nominations for six of the awards were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by West Indies legend Clive Lloyd .The panel also includes former Australia captain Greg Chappell , ex-South Africa all-rounder Shaun Pollock, former Sri Lanka opener Sidath Wettimuny and former Bangladesh batsman Athar Ali Khan. This panel will also select the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.

The winners of these six individual awards will be voted upon by a 25-person panel from around the world, made up of renowned former players, respected members of the media, and an elite umpire and elite match referee.

Based on the 12 months between August 9, 2007 and August 12, 2008, the ICC Awards 2008 will take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game. That period includes the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007 in South Africa.

The ICC Awards ceremony is now in its fifth year and this will be the first time it has been staged in Dubai. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006) and Johannesburg (2007).