Chanderpaul sweeps major WIPA awards

Shivnarine Chanderpaul won all three major awards at the annual West Indies Players' Association's awards on Sunday night. The fifth edition of the award saw him voted the international cricketer of the year, Test cricketer of the year and one-day international cricketer of the year.

The accolades cap a superb year for Chanderpaul during which he was the mainstay of the West Indian batting line-up. He averaged 111.60 in Tests in 2007, going past 50 in six of his seven innings. It was also his most fruitful year in one-dayers: he plundered 913 runs, including four centuries, at 76.08.

Trinidad and Tobago batsman Daren Ganga, who was last year's Test player of the year, was named the first-class cricketer of the year while 17-year-old Adrian Barath was bagged the emerging cricketer of the year award, after an impressive first season. Barbadian Shamarh Brooks, who lead the West Indies during the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia in February, was declared the U-19 cricketer of the year.