Pace bowler Jhulan Goswami became the first Indian ever to bag the ICC
Women's Cricketer of the Year award making amends for the failure of her more
illustrious male counterparts to make it to the list of nominees. 
The 23-year-old pacer from Bengal pipped rivals Lisa Sthalekar
of Australia and Claire Taylor of England at a glittering annual awards
function last evening when Australian captain Ricky Ponting was chosen as the
Cricketer of the Year for second time in a row while also being adjudged the
Captain of the Year 2007 for both Test and ODI teams.
Pakistan's disgruntled batsman Mohammad Yousuf was declared
Test cricketer of the Year and Australian Matthew Hayden was the awarded
the ODI Player of the Year while his compatriot, young pacer Shaun Tait,
won the Emerging Player of the Year award. Kenya's Thomas Odoya was given the
inaugural ICC Associate ODI Player of the year award.
Another Australian, Simon Taufel, received the ICC Umpire of
the Year for fourth year in a row.
For the first time, no Indian male cricketer was in the list
of nominees though Sachin Tendulkar, who has shown signs of rediscovering
his vintage form, was named in the ICC ODI team. However, no Indian was included
in the ICC Test team of the Year. Zaheer Khan was named the 12th man.
Jhulan received the award from Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
Indian skipper for the World Twenty20 Championship.
"It's a dream come true for me. I am very excited to win
this award. It is very unexpected because the other candidates are great players.
It is very special for me," said Jhulan.
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