ICC AWARDS 2012-Sangakkara, Amla, Philander, Clarke in running for top ICC honour

South Africa's Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, Australia's Michael Clarke and Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara are in the running for the ICC Cricketer of the Year award for 2011-12. The ICC announced the shortlists for the annual awards on Thursday, and the winners will be announced at a function ahead of the World Twenty20, on September 15, in Colombo.

The four cricketers have also been nominated for ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, while Lasith Malinga, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli join Sangakkara as the contenders for ODI Cricketer of the year.

The nominees were picked off the ICC's longlists, via voting by an academy of 32 people consisting of former players, members of the media, and representatives of the ICC's panel of umpires and match referees. The players were picked based on their performance between August 4, 2011, and August 6, 2012.

The Twenty20 Performance of the Year shortlist includes Tillakaratne Dilshan (for his century against Australia last August), Ajantha Mendis (for his six-for against Australia during the same series), Chris Gayle (for his unbeaten 85 against New Zealand in Florida) and Richard Levi (for his ton against New Zealand, the fastest century in international T20s).

West Indies' Stafanie Taylor and England's Sarah Taylor are most prominent on the women's shortlists, nominated for both Women's ODI Cricket of the Year and Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year.

List of nominees

ICC Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, Michael Clarke, Vernon Philander, Kumar Sangakkara

ICC Test Cricketer of the Year: Hashim Amla, Michael Clarke, Vernon Philander, Kumar Sangakkara

ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year: MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Lasith Malinga, Kumar Sangakkara

ICC T20I Performance of the Year: Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Richard Levi, Ajantha Mendis

ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Lydia Greenway (Eng), Anisa Mohammed (WI), Sarah Taylor (Eng), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

ICC Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year: Alyssa Healy (Aus), Lisa Sthalekar (Aus), Sarah Taylor (Eng), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

ICC Emerging Cricketer of the Year: Doug Bracewell, Dinesh Chandimal, Sunil Narine, James Pattinson

ICC Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year: Kevin O'Brien, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Paul Stirling (all four Ireland), Dawlat Zadran (Afg)

ICC Umpire of the Year: Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Richard Kettleborough, Simon Taufel, Rodney Tucker

ICC Spirit of Cricket: Mohammad Hafeez, Jacques Kallis, Daniel Vettori, AB de Villiers

People's Choice Award: James Anderson, Jacques Kallis, Vernon Philander, Kumar Sangakkara, Sachin Tendulkar

Ashwin spins India to innings win

For all that spin bowling is considered an art involving guile and deception, India's spinners took apart the New Zealand batting with the precision of surgeons combined with the calculations of mathematicians. The first Test in Hyderabad had a severely truncated third day and a slightly curtailed fourth, but ended with a day to spare.

India won by an innings and 115 runs, its spinners taking 18 of the 20 wickets to fall. New Zealand, following on in their second innings, were all out for 164 an hour before the scheduled close of play on Sunday, losing their last nine wickets for 66 runs.

At the top of the pile stood R Ashwin, who finished the game with his first ten-wicket bag in Tests, taking 6 for 54 in the second innings and a match tally of 12 for 85 - the best figures for an Indian bowler in Tests versus New Zealand.

Ashwin sent down a repertoire of flighted off-breaks and top-spinners of varing pace, made canny use of his special "carrom" ball. It helped clean up the New Zealand tail, with four still left for the taking after tea. Ashwin got three of the remaining four, two with the carrom ball that leaves the batsman. Ashwin's second-innings tally followed up his 6 for 31 in the first.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha bowled in perfect tandem with Ashwin, both making maximum use of the frequent bite and bounce on the surface, and also the struggle of the New Zealand batsmen against spin. Ojha's match tally was 6 for 92.

The morning session was delayed by two hours due to rain and India's push for victory was resisted handsomely up by a gutsy 72-run second wicket partnership between Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson. They batted all through the 90 minutes before lunch, scoring 51 careful runs and holding off the Indian spinners.

McCullum's departure early on in the second session gave the Indians the opening. New Zealand's last nine wickets fell for 66 runs; it had taken a few pieces of masterful spin to pull the ground out from underneath New Zealand's feet.

It all began when McCullum steamed off when given out leg before in Umesh Yadav's second over after lunch, an inside edge the source of his fury. The sound of the inside edge appeared decisive but replays showed simultaneous points of contact off both bat and pad. McCullum's had been a sagacious innings, the perfect senior colleague in partnership with the 22-year-old Williamson, scoring 32 in close to three hours of batting.

Until then, McCullum had played the assured hand, Williamson taking the risks of trying to drive against the spin. Ashwin tried to lure him into a false stroke. In the first session, the waiting game worked for New Zealand, Williamson driving Ashwin down the ground for a boundary the moment he over pitched. McCullum pulled out his patent pull shot when Ojha bowled one short and on leg stump. It was New Zealand's session in which their batsmen held some control.

After the break, though, came the deluge. If McCullum fell to a somewhat controversial lbw, seven runs later, Ross Taylor shouldered arms to Ashwin, who got the ball to turn and knock the top of his off stump. Williamson - clearly New Zealand's batsman of the entire Test - held his own at the other end, getting to 50 with a steer past third man for three.

With less than half an hour left for tea, Ojha, who had bowled 11 overs non-stop from one end, came in for his second spell of the day. The second ball was a peach: it looped up towards the stumps and drew Williamson forward. As it pitched, it bounced and turned away from him, nibbled at the edge of Williamson's bat and flew to Virender Sehwag at first slip.

Daniel Flynn, who had until then played foil to Williamson, tried to sweep Ashwin in his 54-minute innings for the first time. The end result was identical to his first innings: unequivocally, leg before for 11. Three runs later, Ashwin worked out the dismissal of James Franklin, with five minutes left for tea. Franklin nicked a climbing off break, and Sehwag dived to his right to take a one-handed catch at first slip. Five wickets had fallen for 54 runs in the 30 overs between lunch and tea. Right there, New Zealand's time in the Test match was as good as up.

Rain respite for New Zealand after follow-on

Only the combination of torrential rain and New Zealand's best batting form of recent months could possibly thwart India's thunderous march in the first of ten home Tests this season. When a second-session downpour ended play on the third day of the Test in Hyderabad, India had New Zealand following on in their second innings at 41 for 1. New Zealand were all out for 159 in their first innings, losing their last five batsmen before lunch.

Only 38 overs could be bowled today, enough for India to seize control of this game. Play began late on the third day, due to the heavy rains that had beaten down on Hyderbad in the hours preceding the scheduled start time. India, though, made the most of the overs available to them, especially when they had before them the lower order of a team that had come into this series without a warm-up game.

When play was called off an hour after lunch, New Zealand had put in a seemingly more thought-out second-innings batting performance, losing just the one wicket in18 overs. This, after a morning on which their bottom half had fallen over in just 19 in their first innings.

India's spinners picked up nine first innings wickets between them in the first gig, Ashwin finishing with 6 for 31. Both Ashwin and Ojha used the the dipping length of the floated, spinning ball, slow turn off the track and the uneven bounce on one side of the pitch to keep up their interrogation of New Zealand's fortitude in adverse circumstances.

Following on, with Ojha opening the bowling, the New Zealand openers batted like the better of the India middle order had. With circumspection, patience and certainity. Brendon McCullum was batting on 16 off 59 balls at stumps, after unluckily losing his partner Martin Guptill, ajudged lbw off Ojha for 16.

Guptill, New Zealand's in-form batsman on their last tour of the West Indies, had batted for almost an hour with McCullum and hit Ojha for two consecutive boundaries with the spin. He tried to nudge a third past the slip cordon only to nick to Virat Kohli at second slip, but he couldn't seize the chance. Two overs later, Guptil padded up to Ojha, fullstretch to a ball that may have hit him in line with off stump. Replays indicated it was spinning away from the stumps. This has been the only piece of misfortune in New Zealand's batting so far in this Test match. The situation they find themselves in has otherwise been of their own making.

Ashwin had begun the second innings on a hat-trick, introduced only in the 18th over, the last before the downpour. Off the three balls he got in, McCullum spanked one tossed-up, outside-off delivery for his first boundary in 58 balls. It was an unusual kind of McCullum innings, but his approach was not a bad way to attempt to erase the memory of what New Zealand had managed in the previous two sessions.

When play began today Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav opened the bowling in what appeared to be a warming-up formality. Yadav took the only New Zealand wicket that didn't fall to a spinner, Kruger van Wyk leg before in the second over of the day. Yadav made use of the inconsistent bounce at one end, getting van Wyk while he was trying to execute the pull. He was struck above the pad, given out as he crouched - the ball would have hit the stumps as vanWyk is not the tallest of men.

Doug Bracewell survived competently for four overs against the two-man seam attack. The eighth ball that he faced against Pragyan Ojha though, he was in knots, caught between the intent to charge and the necessity to defend. He still scored two with a lofted drive over cover. He followed up by stepping out again, but his heave missed the line completely as the ball looped away. Dhoni's stumping splayed the wickets.

If Ojha got his wicket in quick time, Ashwin, brought on in the 16th over of the morning, needed only three overs to get rid of the three remaining batsmen. Patel reached out for a drive, only to offer a low return-catch to Ashwin's left. A ball turning in front of his bat got Trent Boult inside edging to shot leg Gambhir. The No. 11 Chris Martin did defend, but only got the thin air in front of his bat as Ashwin's off-break cannoned into the stumps.

All that stands between India and New Zealand and their varied hopes in this Test match, now, is the weather.

Laxman retires from international cricket

VVS Laxman has announced his retirement from international cricket with immediate effect, ahead of the home Test series against New Zealand starting August 23 in his hometown Hyderabad. Laxman, 37, has had a glittering career since his debut in 1996 but his recent Test form had raised question marks over his continuance in the side. He will, however, play for his domestic team Hyderabad this year in the Ranji Trophy.

"I would like to announce my retirement from international cricket with immediate effect," Laxman said at an emotional press conference in Hyderabad. "I have always kept my country's success and need ahead of my personal aspirations. And while I would love contributing to the team's success, especially against England and Australia, I think this is the right to give opportunity to the youngsters in home conditions ahead of international assignments.

"It was a tough decision to take, I have always listened to my inner conscience. I have always done that right through my career. There was a lot of debate in the last four days. I felt this is the right time to move on."

Laxman represented India in 134 Tests, scoring 8781 runs at 45.97. He made his debut against South Africa in the home series in 1996 but shot to the limelight with a knock of 167 against Australia in Sydney in 2000. Perhaps his greatest achievement was his 281at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2001, against Australia, then the highest score by an Indian batsman in Tests. Part of a record stand with Rahul Dravid, it set up a stunning victory for the home team after following on and ended Australia's consecutive 16-match winning streak.

Laxman last played an ODI in 2006 but had, by then, become a regular in the Test side and played his 100th Test in 2008, against Australia in Nagpur. Laxman made six of his 17 Test centuries against Australia, with an average of 49.67 in 29 Tests and success both home and away.

His performances in the eight Tests during India's disastrous tours of England and Australia in 2011 were disappointing. He averaged 22.75 in England and 19.38 in Australia, prompting some to call for him being dropped from the side with a long-term view of grooming a youngster to take his place.

Laxman confirmed he'd be playing for Hyderabad this domestic season and hoped he could help them win the Ranji Trophy.

ICC disburses $2.5m to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Cricket has received $2.5 million from the ICC, to help with the costs of hosting the World Twenty20 that begins on September 18, a board official has said. The $2.5 million includes a string-free grant of $500,000 and a loan of $1 million, as well as $1 million advance payment for ticket sales. The ICC has also guaranteed the SLC an additional $1 million in ticket sales, which will be paid after the tournament ends. The money will be used to upgrade facilities at the Hambantota, Pallekele and R Premadasa stadiums, where the World Twenty20 matches will be held.

"We requested the money to make up the shortfall we were expecting for the tournament," SLC treasurer Nuski Mohamed said. "The money will pay for new equipment that will be used for the World T20 and beyond." The required equipment includes new pitch covers, and supersoppers and rollers, which had been transported in between venues during previous tournaments but cannot be moved from place to place during the World Twenty20 due to the hectic match schedule. "We want to make each venue self-sufficient," Mohamed said.

The $2 million for ticket sales is expected to be more than what the heavily-indebted SLC would have received, had no guarantee been put in place, Mohamed said. "The ICC doesn't want the ticket prices to be high, that's why they've made this guarantee. I don't think the ticket sales will be $2 million, so we've got a good deal." He added that the loan of $1 million does not have to paid until 2015 and that it has not been borrowed against any collateral. SLC had requested the funds at the annual ICC's annual conference in Malaysia in June, and had their application approved over the past month. Mohamed said the deal was not facilitated by newly-appointed SLC advisor and former ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat, though the request had been made in the last few days of Lorgat's tenure at the ICC.

The costs of building two new stadiums in Hambantota and Pallekele and conducting extensive renovations to the R Premadasa Stadium were the main contributors to the SLC's debt of almost $70 million following the World Cup in 2011. Sri Lanka cricketers went unpaid for eight months last year, and were only paid their dues by the board after the state-owned Bank of Ceylon released 600 million rupees (approx US$5.07 million) to the board.

Twenty-seven matches have been scheduled for the World T20, which will be played over three weeks. Hambantota will host three matches, Pallekele will host nine, and the remaining 15 are set to be played in Colombo.

Pietersen 'fully committed' to England

Kevin Pietersen may have pulled off a career-saving performance as outrageous as anything he has achieved on the pitch by unconditionally committing himself to play for England in all formats of the game and apologising for the behaviour that led to speculation about dressing room rifts and his premature retirement.

In another development late on Saturday, the ECB announced that the squad for the third Test against South Africa would be delayed until 2.30pm on Sunday having originally been set for 9.30am, inviting the belief that England's selectors, having picked the squad for the final Test at Lord's, had been forced back into an emergency session.

Pietersen, who was facing the prospect of being dropped by England following a series of incidents that appeared to have driven a wedge between him and the rest of the England team, has retracted his request to play a full IPL season, reversed his retirement from international limited-overs cricket and withdrawn many of the comments he made in an emotional press conference following the second Test at Leeds. In a personally arranged video interview, Pietersen expressed his unconditional return for England in all forms of the game.

"I want to commit to all forms of cricket for England because I love playing for England," Pietersen said. "I am wanting to play all three forms of cricket again for England: the ODIs against South Africa in a couple of weeks and the T20 World Cup if I am selected. I want to make myself available for every single format of cricket for England.

"I am absolutely not insisting on playing the full IPL season. I am taking that all back. I will not be playing the full IPL. I will come back and play in the Tests against New Zealand next year.

"I've realised what is important to be. I've realised I can be happy. I've realised how much I love playing for England. I've realised that the last three or four days would be a sad way to go after all the happiness I've enjoyed. I'd hate to leave playing for England and I'd hate to leave all the spectators and fans this way.

"The stubbornness I've got sometimes - which is probably not a good thing as well - has led me to try to believe myself for too long and I've got to a point now where I've gone: play for England. This is what you love and this is what I want to do.

"I am fully committed and passionate about playing for England. I want to play for England. That is why I want to get back playing in all three formats of the game for England. I love doing what I do and I don't want to disappoint people.

"I've had a change of heart because of the reasons I stated. I love playing cricket for England.

"Money is not everything to me. I love winning for England. I loved the runs I scored at Headingley. I can't wait to play in Straussy's 100th Test next week. These things make me happy. Winning makes me happy.

"I understand that I have a short career. I can't do this until I'm 40. I have a young family and I'm the provider. I need to maximise my opportunities financially in order to have protection in later life. It's not all about money. I love playing for England and the runs I score for England mean so much more to me."

Pietersen accepted that his comments in Monday night's press conference following the second South Africa Test at Leeds had been emotional and unhelpful, but said he had held long discussions with a teammate in which many problems had been resolved.

"There's a press conference I did on Monday which I didn't handle in the right way," Pietersen said. "I was very emotional. I am who I am. I do make mistakes.

"The mood in the dressing room, in the last 24 hours, has been sorted out. I had a really good long chat with a team-mate of mine yesterday. We went through everything. We went through differences. We went through everything. I finished that conversation a very happy bloke and somebody who can't wait to meet with the team on Tuesday.

"I didn't handle the press conference well at all. I was in an emotional state. I did think there was a possibility it might be my penultimate Test. I said things I shouldn't have said. I know I have to clear things up. I want to clear things up.

"I need to pull towards the team. The team will need to pull towards me. I believe, in the last 24 hours, that's been done."

Words are one thing, of course. It is Pietersen's actions that will be scrutinised over the coming weeks and months by a dressing room that is somewhat jaded by recent events. There will be those in England's limited-overs teams, in particular, whose own positions are jeopardised by Pietersen's return. The World T20 team was picked at Edgbaston on Friday and must be announced by August 18. Whether Pietersen's backtracking has come in time remains to be seen.

But there can be no doubt that any England team is considerably strengthened by a Pietersen that feels respected, needed and appreciated. The brinksmanship between the ECB and Pietersen took their relationship to the edge over recent days but, once again, the uncompromising attitudes of Andy Flower would appear to have been vindicated.