Indian Revenge Against Rivals Pakistan - - Manages to Defeat Pakistan in ICC Award Ceremony

They limped out of the ICC Champions Trophy with a win against the insipid West Indies at Wanderers on Wednesday, but India has a reason to celebrate because its players dominated the ICC awards ceremony at Sandton Convention centre in Johannesburg on Thursday night.

India lost to archrivals Pakistan at Centurion, by 54 runs while their next match at the venue was abandoned due to rain, leaving India with only a point from two matches.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir were however named ODI and Test Player of the Year, respectively. Australia had Mitchell Johnson get the coveted Cricketer of the Year Award.

Even though on the pitch India did not lose to Australia per se, Johnson beat Dhoni and Gambhir for the coveted award, which was a four-way race with England captain Andrew Strauss who last night was the first batsman to leave the crease after he was caught by James Hopes off Peter Siddle, after posting only 14 runs.

Johnson took 80 wickets from 17 matches he played in the year, along with 632 valuable runs at an average of 30.09, including a century. In the 16 ODIs he played during the year, he scalped 28 victims and scored 83 runs in the voting period from August 13, 2008 to August 24, 2009.

Gambhir beat Johnson, Strauss and Sri Lanka ’s Thilan Samaraweera. He scored 1,269 runs from eight matches he played in the voting period, recording an average of 84.60 with five centuries.

Second time running

Dhoni won the ODI for the second time running. In the voting period, he scored 967 runs from 24 ODIs, including nine fifties. He beat team mates Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag and West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who did not appear in this year’s Trophy, to the award.

Dhoni was also named captain of both the Test and ODI Teams of the Year. Both the world teams have three Indians each, including Dhoni. Sachin Tendulkar, who missed India ’s last match against West Indies at this tournament, and Gambhir found place in the world Test Team while Sehwag and Yuvraj figured in the ODI side. India’s lethal off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was named as the 12th man in the world Test team.

New Zealand recieved the Spirit of Cricket Awards. The selection panel for the awards was chaired by former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd, with Anil Kumble (India), Bob Taylor (England), Mudassar Nazar (Pakistan) and Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) as members.