Tillakaratne Dilshan holds his T20 International Performance of the Year Award at the International Cricket Council Awards 2009 in Sandton, South Africa, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP)

Award winners:

Cricketer of the Year– Mitchell Johnson (Aus)

Test Player of the Year– Gautam Gambhir (Ind)

ODI Player of the Year – Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)

Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Claire Taylor (Eng)

Emerging Player of the Year – Peter Siddle (Aus)

Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year – William Porterfield (Ireland)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year – Tillekertane Dilshan (SL)

Spirit of Cricket Award – New Zealand

Umpire of the Year Award – Aleem Dar (Pakistan)

Test Team of the Year:

Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Thilan Samaraweera (SL), Michael Clarke (Aus), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain/wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Ban), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng) and Dale Steyn (SA).

12th man: Harbhajan Singh (Ind)

ODI Team of the Year:

Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillekeratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain/wk), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL) and Umar Gul (Pak).

12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

Sri Lanka’s attacking opening batsman, Tillekeratne Dilshan, won the International Cricket Council award for the T-20 Performance of the Year at the sixth ICC Awards Ceremony in Johannesburg Thursday night.

Dilshan, the Player of the Tournament during the ICC T-20 World Cup, has been in terrific form ever since he volunteered to open early this year and his unbeaten 96 in 57 deliveries during the semi-final of the T-20 World Cup against West Indies at The Oval won him the award.

Dilshan was short listed for the award along with West Indian captain, Chris Gayle and Pakistanis, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi.

He collected his award from India’s Yuvraj Singh, who had won the award the previous year. "This is a great feeling for me. I can’t forget about that innings. I was really happy about my overall performance in that tournament. It was a thrill for me to do well in England and do well for my team," Dilshan said after receiving the award.

"I am really proud of myself for having a new shot named after me (the Dilscoop). That shot has given me confidence and if I am under pressure, I can play that shot and put pressure back on the bowler," he added.

Fellow team-mate Thilan Samaraweera, who has been in terrific form in Test cricket during the period when performances were taken into consideration (August 2008 to August 2009) was unlucky to miss out on the award for the Test Player of the Year.

Samaraweera was in the shortlist of Test Player of the Year award, but missed out as India’s Gautam Gambhir walked away with the award. Samaraweera scored over 1200 runs in Tests during the 12 months period averaging close to 80 runs and hit two double hundreds and two hundreds.

Samaraweera however was named in the ICC Test team of the year. He was the only Sri Lankan named in the side despite the team having an excellent run over the 12 month period in Test cricket.

However, surprisingly, there were three Sri Lankans named in the ICC ODI teams of the year despite the team struggling in ODI cricket in recent months. Along with Dilshan, Nuwan Kulasekara, world’s number one ranked bowler in ODIs and Ajantha Mendis were named in the team captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni while left-arm seamer Thilan Thushara was named as the 12th man.

The Sri Lankan team that won back to back ICC Spirit of Cricket Awards missed out on the award despite showing exemplary sportsmanship throughout the year. New Zealand won the award for Spirit of Cricket this year, decided by ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires and Match Referees and all ten captains in Test cricket.

Australia’s Mitchell Johnson won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, presented to the Cricketer of the Year while Indian captain M. S. Dhoni was named as the ODI Cricketer of the Year. England’s Claire Taylor won the award for Women’s Cricketer of the Year while Australia’s Peter Siddle was named as the Emerging Player of the Year, an award last year won by Ajantha Mendis. Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar won the award for Umpire of the Year, the award won by Simon Taufel for five years in succession.