Sangakkara and Malinga claim Cricinfo honours

Wicketkeeper-batsmen Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka and Adam Gilchrist of Australia were among six cricketers honoured by a top website for their standout performances last year.

Indians Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Rudra Pratap Singh, and Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga were other winners of the inaugural Cricinfo awards for outstanding batting and bowling displays in all three forms of the game.

Gilchrist, who announced his retirement last week, won the one-day batting award for his blistering 149 against Sri Lanka in the World Cup final at Bridgetown.

Left-handed Sangakkara claimed the Test batting honour for his 192 against Australia in the second Test at Hobart, according to the awards list released by the website on Wednesday.

“The awards are a celebration of the best performances in the calendar year 2007, and even though they carry no monetary rewards, we are confident that cricketers will value the acclaim,” said Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal.

“Cricket awards are commonplace, but to us at Cricinfo they are a logical and inevitable extension of what we are about.

We cover every ball bowled in cricket and we see ourselves as cricket’s global voice.” The winners were selected by a jury comprising former cricketers Geoffrey Boycott, Ian Chappell, Daryll Cullinan, Tony Greig, Michael Holding, David Lloyd, Sanjay Manjrekar, Rameez Raja and Ravi Shastri.

Cricinfo award winners

Test batting: Kumar Sangakkara (SRI): 192 v Australia 2nd Test, Hobart

Test bowling: Zaheer Khan (IND): 5-75 v England, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge

One-day batting: Adam Gilchrist (AUS): 149 v Sri Lanka, World Cup final, Bridgetown

One-day bowling: Lasith Malinga (SRI): 4-54 v South Africa, World Cup, Georgetown

Twenty20 batting: Yuvraj Singh (IND): 70 v Australia, World Twenty20 semi-final, Durban

Twenty20 bowling: Rudra Pratap Singh (IND): 4-13 v South Africa, World Twenty20, Durban

NEW DELHI, Wednesday AFP