To begin with, he played a crucial role in india winning three ODIs in that famous 6-1 sweep against Sri Lanka last year:

• In Jaipur, he hit a hurricane unbeaten 183 and India won by four wickets, chasing 298.

• In Pune, his unbeaten 45 took India home by six wickets, chasing 261.

• In Baroda (IPCL), Dhoni smashed 80 in India’s five-wicket win, chasing 244.

Then, in the ODI series against Pakistan, India again turned to him to hunt down and win two matches:

• In Lahore, Dhoni’s unbeaten 72 saw India through by five wickets, chasing 288

• And in Karachi, his unconquered 77 saw India thrash Inzamam’s team by eight wickets.

Of course, the rules (not more than 10 ODIs) had already ruled him out of Emerging player of the year list.

However, the good news for India is that skipper Rahul Dravid has been nominated in four categories including captain of the year, cricketer of the year, and Test and ODI player of the year. And Irfan Pathan, who went through a slump in the West Indies remains top one-day wicket-taker of the year and finds a place in the ODI list with the maximum number of wickets in the evaluation period: 58.

This year’s awards also includes two new categories—the women cricketer of the year award, following the ICC’s merger with the International Women Cricket Association earlier this year, and the captain of the year award. The two newly constituted awards takes the total number of categories to 10—seven individual awards and three team awards.

... contd.