Sangakkara in race for four ICC awards

Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara was on Thursday nominated in four categories for the International Cricket Council awards, including player of the year. The 34-year-old batsman-wicketkeeper will compete with South Africans Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander and Australian Test captain Michael Clarke for the Garfield Sobers Trophy. All four have also been nominated for the Test cricketer of the year, while Sangakkara also features in the shortlist for the one-day and people's awards. The winners will be announced in Colombo on September 15. Sangakkara's rivals for the one-day cricketer of the year include team-mate Lasith Malinga, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli of India. An independent 32-person panel comprising former players and representatives from the media, match referees and umpires drew up the shortlists. Cricketers receiving the highest number of votes from the panel will be adjudged the winners. Performances over a 12-month period that ended on August 6, 2012 were taken into account. Doug Bracewell of New Zealand, Sri Lanka's Dinesh Chandimal, Sunil Narine of the West Indies and Australia's James Pattinson were nominated for the emerging cricketer of the year award.