THE award to the West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul as ICC cricketer of the year in Dubai last night was heart-warming mainly because there was hardly an Australian name in the long list of categories, a notable exception being Simon Taufel, umpire of the year for the fifth year in succession.

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Chanderpaul, 34, the Guyana and Durham left-hander, had an outstanding year for one of the weakest Test-playing countries, which made his achievement all the more gratifying. He was named in the ICC world Test team of the year, as chosen by a panel of eminent past players.

England had two players in the Test team, Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom, while Australia had only one in Brett Lee, the only player to appear in both Test and one-day lists. Australia had five in the ICC one-day pick and England none, though if the home South Africa series had been included, no doubt Andrew Flintoff's name would have cropped up.

Australians were even pipped in the women's section when the England batsman Charlotte Edwards followed in the footsteps of Jhulan Goswami, of India, and former Australia captain Karen Rolton to become the third women’s player of the year. Perhaps the lack of all-round Australian star quality suggests Ricky Ponting faces another very tough Ashes tour in 2010. 

There was a new award to mark the Twenty20 international performance of the year. Yuvraj Singh became the inaugural winner of that following his remarkable six sixes in one over for India during the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa. The bowler, not mentioned in the citation, was the luckless Stuart Broad.

Taufel, 37, was voted to his award by the 10 Full Member captains and the eight-man Emirates elite panel of ICC referees. Receiving the award, he said that Ricky Ponting's success had restricted his own ambitions. "I’m delighted to win this award, but I don’t set this as a goal at the start of a season," he said. "My goals are to be selected for finals and for major championships like the Champions Trophy or World Twenty20. If Ricky and the boys slip up eventually, I might get the chance to do a final. Umpiring is essentially a mental exercise. For me it’s about being mentally fit and keeping at the top of my game."

Taufel beat off strong competition for this award from his colleagues on the Emirates elite panel of ICC umpires Mark Benson, Rudi Koertzen, Steve Davis and Aleem Dar.

Taufel made his first class debut as an umpire in 1994-95 an joined the Emirates Elite Panel in 2003. In the voting period of these awards Taufel stood in 10 Tests and 16 ODIs, as well as the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, where he was an on-field umpire in the thrilling India v Pakistan final along with Benson.

In the video clips dedicated to he awards, the bravado of batsmen and bowlers can be well illustrated with pounding background music -- but umpiring? One can imagine a montage of Taufel decisions, with the finger going skywards in rapid succession, followed by signals of fours and sixes in slow motion, and then the lifting of the bails... Perhaps not.

ICC award winners

Cricketer of the Year: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (W Indies)

Test player:              Dale Steyn (S Africa)

ODI player:               Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India)

Woman cricketer:       Charlotte Edwards (England)

Emerging player:        Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Associate ODI player: Ryan ten Doeschate (Holland)

Twenty20 performance: Yuvraj Singh (India)

Spirit of Cricket:         Sri Lanka

Umpire:                     Simon Taufel (Australia)

ICC World Test team 2008 (in batting order):

Graeme Smith (S Africa, captain)

Virender Sehwag (India)

Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka)

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies)

Kevin Pietersen (England)

Jacques Kallis (S Africa)

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, wkt)

Brett Lee (Australia)

Ryan Sidebottom (England)

Dale Steyn (S Africa)

Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka)

12th man: Stuart Clark (Aus)

ICC world one-day team 2008  (in batting order):

Herschelle Gibbs (S Africa)

Sachin Tendulkar (India)

Ricky Ponting (Australia, captain)

Younus Khan (Pakistan)

Andrew Symonds (Australia)

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India, wkt)

Farveez Maharoof (Sri Lanka)

Daniel Vettori (NZ)

Brett Lee (Australia)

Mitchell Johnson (Australia)

Nathan Bracken (Australia)

12th man: Salman Butt (Pakistan)