• Cricket

Michael Clarke named Cricketer of the Year

Australia may have had a difficult 2013 but Michael Clarke emerged with two top honours at the ICC awards © Getty Images

Enlarge

Michael Clarke has won Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer of the Year, two of the most prestigious awards annually announced by the ICC. Clarke's wins come despite Australia having a wretched time during a 12-month spell till August, the period over which performances are considered for the awards.

Clarke's awards come largely on the basis of his prolific run in Tests, amassing 1559 runs in the voting period, more than 300 better than the next highest, Alastair Cook. His five Test centuries included two double-hundreds and a 187 against England. Australia lost several senior players to retirement, and Clarke needed to guide an inexperienced side besides battling chronic back trouble.

Previous winners of the Cricketer of the Year award include Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008), Mitchell Johnson (2009), Sachin Tendulkar (2010), Jonathan Trott (2011) and Kumar Sangakkara (2011).

This year, Sangakkara was named the ODI Cricketer of the Year - the one major award that he missed out in 2012. India's Cheteshwar Pujara took the Emerging Cricketer prize, while Ireland's Kevin O'Brien won the Associate and Affiliate award.

The women's winners were New Zealand's Suzie Bates (ODI) and England's Sarah Taylor (T20).

The winners:

Cricketer of the Year (Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) - Michael Clarke (Australia)

Test Cricketer of the Year - Michael Clarke (Australia)

Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year - Suzie Bates (New Zealand)

ODI Cricketer of the Year - Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

Emerging Cricketer of the Year - Cheteshwar Pujara (India)

Associate and Affiliate Cricketer of the Year - Kevin O'Brien (Ireland)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Umar Gul (Pakistan)

T20I Women's Cricketer of the Year - Sarah Taylor (England)

Spirit of Cricket Award - Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)

Umpire of the Year (winning the David Shepherd Trophy) - Richard Kettleborough

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd