By Omulo Okoth in Centurion, Pretoria

Australia’s bowler Mitchell Johnson won the cricketer of the year award at a glittering ceremony where no Kenyan player won anything at the prestigious Sandton Sun Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

The LG/ICC Awards ceremony, held on Thursday evening, was the sixth edition, held to coincide with the ICC Champions Trophy. Previous editions were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007) and Dubai (2008). Kenya’s former captain, Thomas Odoyo, won the 2007 ICC Associate Player of the Year award.

Johnson was also named in the ICC World Test Team of the Year, as chosen by a panel of some of the greats of the game. The 27-year-old fast bowler has had a magnificent year with the ball and has become one of the world’s most dangerous and determined players.

Johnson was joined on the winners’ list by India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who took the ODI Player of the Year award for the second year running, while his teammate Gautam Gambir was named Test Player of the Year.

This year’s associate award went to Ireland captain, William Porterfield, after beating Canada’s Rizwan Cheema and the Dutch duo of Edgar Schiferli and last year’s winner Ryan ten Doeschate.

Ireland, Canada, Netherlands and Kenya are among associate members, teams below the full members. Porterfield played for Ireland in 11 one dayers, making two centuries and two half-centuries. His batting average was 46.80 with a strike rate of 77.10. As captain, he also led Ireland to nine victories in those 11 matches.

England’s Claire Taylor followed in the footsteps of her captain, Charlotte Edwards to become the Women’s Player of the Year. In total, there were eight individual awards handed out, and Spirit of Cricket Award for the first time, won by New Zealand, as it did in 2004. Aleem Dar of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires won the Umpire of the Year award for the first time.

The Twenty20 International Performance of the Year was won by Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, who became the second-ever recipient of the honour. Dilshan took the trophy following his impressive 96 not out off 57 balls against the West Indies during the ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England.