Virat nominated for Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year awards, Sachin for ICC People’s Choice award

In-form India batsman Virat Kohli along with Sachin Tendulkar has been nominated for the top ICC Awards 2012. While Kohli has been nominated for the Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year awards, Tendulkar has once again been nominated for the ICC People’s Choice award, says a report in The Hindu.

Those nominated for the People’s Choice award include Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, South Africa’s Vernon Philander and Jacques Kallis, while England’s James Anderson makes up the quintet of nominees. For the third time in the history of the awards, fans will have the opportunity to decide the winner, this time by accessing an application on the ICC’s official Facebook page: www.facebook.com/cricketicc. Voting will be open until midnight August 31.

Meanwhile according to a report in The Times Of India, both Sangakkara (2011) and Tendulkar (2010) have won the award in the past. “India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and opener Gautam Gambhir have also been nominated for the ODI Cricketer of the Year award. However, India doesn't have a single nomination in the Test Cricketer of the Year award,” says the report, adding that six players have been nominated in three different categories -- Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal, South Africa's Hashim Amla, Australia captain Michael Clarke, Sangakkara, England's Alastair Cook and West Indies Stafanie Taylor.

The six players all feature in the ICC Cricketer of the Year, the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, long list, while the male nominees are all nominated in both the Test Cricketer of the Year and ODI Cricketer of the Year long lists, Taylor on the other hand features in the Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year and Women's T20 Cricketer of the Year long lists.