Shivnarine Chanderpaul ... the ICC's Cricketer of the Year. - File

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CMC):

SHIVNARINE CHANDERPAUL became the first West Indies player to claim a major prize at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Awards when he copped the Cricketer of the Year honours yesterday.

The prolific left-handed batsman was named winner of the award - the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy - at the prestigious LG ICC Awards, a glittering ceremony at The Weston Hotel.

Chanderpaul, who also made the shortlist last year, fought off competition from other nominees Mahela Jayawardene from Sri Lanka, as well as South Africa's Graeme Smith and Dale Steyn, to take the top award.

'I am honoured'

"I am honoured to be given this prestigious award tonight and I am very thankful to God for blessing me with the talent that I have," Chanderpaul said.

"I would like to thank my family - in particular my wife Amy - for their constant support over the years," he said.

"A special thank you goes out to my manager, my agent and all my supporters in the Caribbean and throughout the world. It's also important that I thank my team-mates, without whom this wouldn't have been possible," added Chanderpaul, who did not attend the function as he was in England representing Durham in a county match.

Previous winners of the Cricketer of the Year award were India's Rahul Dravid (2004), England's Andrew Flintoff (2005) and Australian Ricky Ponting, who landed back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.

Chanderpaul, 34, had a bumper year, scoring 247 runs in three Tests in South Africa; 130 runs in two Tests against Sri Lanka; and rounding off the Digicel Home Series 2008 with 442 at an average of 147.33 against Australia.

Terrific average

During the voting period, Chanderpaul played eight Test matches, scoring 819 runs at a terrific average of 91, including three centuries and six 50s, all of which were against the top seven teams in the world.

He also played 13 one-day international matches during that time, finishing top of the averages with 74.75, having scored 598 runs, a haul that included a century and five 50s.

ICC AWARDS WINNERS

Cricketer of the Year - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies)

Test Player of the Year - Dale Steyn (South Africa)

ODI Player of the Year - Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Emerging Player of the Year - Ajantha Mendis (Sri Lanka)

Associate Player of the Year - Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year - Yuvraj Singh (India)

Women's Cricketer of the Year - Charlotte Edwards (England)

Umpire of the Year - Simon Taufel (Australia)

Spirit of Cricket - Sri Lanka