Chanderpaul is #1 WI cricketer

West Indies star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been awarded the West Indies Players Association Cricketer-of-the-Year honour, thne second time he has won the honuor.

Other contenders for the covered award were Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards. The 34-year old, left-hander also copped the Test Player-of-the-Year award for his consistent batting in the middle order.

Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Edwards also competed for this award.

Chanderpaul has scored heavily for West Indies in recent years and continues to lead the International Cricket Council’s batting rankings.

West Indies captain Gayle, meanwhile, edged out Chanderpaul, Bravo and Jerome Taylor to claim the One-Day Player-of-the-Year award. The left-handed Gayle sits at No. 4 on the ICC One-Day International batting rankings and is fifth in the all-rounders’ rankings.

Jamaican left arm spinner Nikita Miller captured the first class Player-of-the-Year award for his exploits in last year’s regional tournament while Trinidadian Keiron Pollard, who starred with the bat in the Stanford Twenty20 series, took the regional One-Day Player-of-the-Year award.

Pollard topped hard hitting Barbadian batsman Dwayne Smith, Leeward Islands all-rounder Omari Banks and T&T leg-spinner Samuel Badree.

Jamaica took the first class Team-of-the-Year honour for winning the Carib Beer Shield and Carib Beer Cup in 2008, edging out T&T.

Windward Islands all-rounder Keron Cottoy captured the Under-19 Player-of-the-Year honour, nipping Jamaican Andre Creary, T&T’s Kjorn Ottley and fellow Windwards player Dalton Polius.
Barbados copped the Under-19 Team-of-the-Year title after winning the TCL Limited Overs Regional Under-19 Challenge. Jamaica and West Indies batsman Brendan Nash, who scored a Test century against England last week, took the Emerging Player award for his impressive performances with the bat in the 2008 regional competitions.

Teenager Stafanie Taylor, currently in Australia with the West Indies team at the Women’s World Cup, won the women’s Cricketer-of-the-year award for the second time, having also landed the award as a 15-year-old in 2006.