By IANS
Johannesburg : Australian capain Ricky Ponting is likely to become the first player to lift the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy twice after he was short-listed with three others for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricketer of the Year award for the 2006-07 season.
Ponting, along with England’s Kevin Pietersen, Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf and Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies, has been short-listed for the award, to be presented here Monday, according to an ICC statement Wednesday night.
The four players were selected from an extended list of 12, while the nominations for the Test Player of the Year and One-Day (ODI) Player of the Year have also been cut to four.
Ponting is the only man with a chance of winning all three titles for what was another superb year in which he made 1,185 ODI runs at an average of 51.52 and 576 Test runs at 82.28 apart from leading Australia to triumphs in the World Cup, Champions Trophy and the Ashes.
The nominations:
Cricketer of the Year:
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies)
Kevin Pietersen (England)
Ricky Ponting (Australia)
Mohammed Yousuf (Pakistan)
Test Player:
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)
Kevin Pietersen (England)
Ricky Ponting (Australia)
Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan)
ODI Player:
Matthew Hayden (Australia)
Jacques Kallis (South Africa)
Glenn McGrath (Australia)
Ricky Ponting (Australia)
Emerging Player:
Ravi Bopara (England)
Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh)
Shaun Tait (Australia)
Ross Taylor (New Zealand)
Captain of the Year:
Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)
Ricky Ponting (Australia)
Associate ODI Player of the Year:
Ashish Bagai (Canada)
Thomas Odoyo (Kenya)
Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)
Steve Tikolo (Kenya)
Umpire of the Year:
Mark Benson
Steve Bucknor
Simon Taufel
Women’s Cricketer of the Year:
Jhulan Goswami (India)
Lisa Sthalekar (Australia)
Claire Taylor (England)