Gambhir, Johnson and Strauss in running for both Cricketer of the Year and Test Cricketer the Year at ceremony set for 1 October in Johannesburg

Gautam Gambhir, Mitchell Johnson, Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have all been short-listed for the top honour at the LG ICC Awards 2009.

The votes have now been cast by the independent 25-person academy and these four men are the ones in the running to receive the Sir Garfield Sobers trophy for Cricketer of the Year at a glittering ceremony in Johannesburg on 1 October.

In addition, Gambhir, Johnson and Strauss are also short-listed for the Test Player of the Year alongside Sri Lanka?s Thilan Samaraweera at the sixth annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers? Associations (FICA).

Dhoni is also in contention to retain the ODI Player of the Year award he won last year as he is short-listed in that category with India team-mates Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag as well as West Indies? Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

The Twenty20 International Performance of the year sees two Pakistan players in the short-list, Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul, who are joined by West Indies? Chris Gayle and Sri Lanka?s Tillakaratne Dilshan.

This year?s LG ICC Awards includes eight individual prizes and also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.

The long-lists of nominations were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd. The panel also includes former players such as India?s Anil Kumble, Mudassar Nazar of Pakistan, Bob Taylor of England and New Zealand?s Stephen Fleming.

The short-lists were created after the individual player awards were voted for by an academy of 25 highly credentialed cricket personalities from around the world*. The academy includes a host of former players, respected members of the media as well as representatives of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and ICC Match Referees.

The nominations from the Women?s Cricketer of the Year were decided after a committee of former players, current administrators and journalists created a long-list. This in turn was broken down into a short-list by a separate 25-person voting academy.

This year?s short-list for the Women?s Cricketer of the Year sees the return of last year?s winner, England captain Charlotte Edwards along with team-mate Claire Taylor and Australia?s Shelley Nitschke.

The Spirit of Cricket award was voted on by all international captains as well as all members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. The Umpire of the Year award was voted on by the captains and the match referees based on the umpires? performance statistics.

The Emerging Player of the Year nominees short-list features two Australians, Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle, as well as Jesse Ryder of New Zealand and England?s Graham Onions.

To qualify for that award a player must be under the age of 26 and have played fewer than five Tests and/or 10 ODIs at the start of the voting period.

The Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the ICC Full Members.

This year?s short-list sees the return of last year?s winner, Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands, who is joined by his team-mate Edgar Schiferli. Ireland?s ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier-winning captain William Porterfield and Canada?s Rizan Cheema complete the list.

Based on the period between 13 August 2008 and 24 August 2009, the LG ICC Awards 2009 ? presented in association FICA ? take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

That period includes such high-profile events as the ICC World Twenty20 2009 in England, the ICC Women?s World Cup 2009 in Australia and the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2009 in South Africa, as well as several bilateral Test and ODI series.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its sixth year and this year it will be held in Johannesburg to coincide with the ICC Champions Trophy 2009. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007) and Dubai (2008).

LG ICC Awards 2009

Short-lists of nominees (in alphabetical order)

Individual Awards

Cricketer of the Year
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)

Test Player of the Year
Gautam Gambhir (Ind)
Mitchell Johnson (Aus)
Thilan Samaraweera (SL)
Andrew Strauss (Eng)

ODI Player of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Ind)
Virender Sehwag (Ind)
Yuvraj Singh (Ind)

Emerging Player
Ben Hilfenhaus (Aus)
Graham Onions (Eng)
Jesse Ryder (NZ)
Peter Siddle (Aus)

Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year
Rizwan Cheema (Can)
Ryan ten Doeschate (Ned)
William Porterfield (Ire)
Edgar Schiferli (Ned)

Twenty20 International Performance of the Year

Shahid Afridi (Pak) for scoring 51 off 34 balls and taking 2-16 against South Africa during the ICC WT20 semi-final in Nottingham on 18 June

Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) for scoring 96 not out off 57 balls against the West Indies in the semi-final of the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 19 June

Chris Gayle (WI) ? for hitting 88 off 50 balls against Australia during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 6 June

Umar Gul (Pak) for taking 5-6 against New Zealand during the ICC WT20 at The Oval on 13 June

Women?s Cricketer of the Year
Charlotte Edwards (Eng)
Shelley Nitschke (Aus)
Claire Taylor (Eng)

Umpire of the Year
Aleem Dar
Tony Hill
Asad Rauf

Simon Taufel

Spirit of Cricket
Australia
England
New Zealand
Sri Lanka

MUMBAI: STAR World invites its viewers to celebrate Navratra with 10 nights of non-stop fun and laughter. Unwind with a double bill of the entire season 3 ?How I Met Your Mother? between 11pm to 12am from the 19th to the 28th of September only on STAR World!

Commemorating the festival of joy, STAR World has planned a special package of laughter and cheer for its viewers. Ringing in its 4th Birthday, How I Met Your Mother that premiered in America on 19th September 2005 will bring back the amusing tales from the life of Ted Mosby in the quest to find/meet his wife as narrated to his children. While two episodes of How I Met Your Mother Season 3 will be aired back to back between 11pm to 12am, it will be followed by your favorite sitcom F.R.I.E.N.D.S at 12am.

Don?t miss your daily dose of laughter and cheer with Navratra Delight from 19th to 28th September only on STAR World!

MUMBAI: India‘s most popular melody station, Radio City 91.1FM is celebrating Music ka Sabse Bada Jashan, Musical-E-Azam, Season 3, with a line up of the best talent from the music industry. Today on Day 7th,
the air in Radio City was filled with whistles by the one and only Kunal Ganjawala. He was one person who connected so well with Mumbai city on Radio City‘s breakfast show ‘Kasa Kai Mumbai‘, where he spoke of the blessings with the new Worli Sea Link and speedy turn out of the Metro for Mumbai. The studio was in full josh with Kunal singing some of his famous tracks such as Dupatta Tera, Oh humdam suniyo re and not to forget the latest Raat ke dhai baaje from Kaminey. Listeners and winners of the on air contest queued up to
meet and personally greet the star singer at the Radio City studios.

It all started with him whistling to the tunes of some music that led to the discovery of Kunals captivating voice, as he was ragged on campus and made to sing the songs he whistled. Kunal personally dedicated the song Bheege Honth Tere to Mumbai set against the rains, where the city gets beautifully drenched. All this and much more was revealed during his t?te-?-t?te with RJ Archana and Salil and his fans, all at the Live and Unplugged session at Radio City Musical-E-Azam - Season 3. The environment was in its most Whatte Fun mode with Kunal Ganjawala, singing for his listeners and interacting with them.

The festival, now in its 2nd and last week, gets into a much more exciting mode with the presence of music industry‘s renowned stars Shaan, Raghav Sachar and Sajid/ Wajid stepping in Live & Unplugged only into Radio City studios in the coming 3 days.

MUMBAI: What happens when sportspersons are put through medical examination to verify his age and are proved wrong? NewsX showcases FOREVER YOUNG, another exclusive by the channel which raises the questions and tries to find the answers. How do you establish a sportspersons age through medical examinations? How many times has this issue been raised in the past? Did we really deserve to win the Junior Hockey World Cup in 2001? And why is it such a big problem in India?

The special show revolves around the issue of overage in sports. This is not the first time the issue has been raised and it is recurring in all sports in India, especially hockey. A camp was held in Bhopal for the Under-18 Asian cup hockey players selection. Commenting on the issue Mr. AK Bansal, Coach, Junior hockey team admitted that 48 of 53 boys were overage after medical tests.

Indian hockey legend, Colonel Balbir Singh, added, ?In 2001 when India won the Junior Hockey World Cup everyone knew there were overage players. According to me at least 5-6 players were overage.?

Adding on Mohammad Aslam Khan, Former Selector, Indian Hockey Federation said, ?This has been happening for really long in India. And Pakistan is in the same category. Most of these players are being churned out from Sports Authority of India and the blame goes on the authority.? He also added, ?We are cheating the people ? The biggest problem with this country in sports is that nobody is taking responsibility for something that goes wrong?

Former hockey captain, Pargat Singh shared his views and said, ?We have an instance where there were two brothers with a 4 months age gap. Coach the coaches, as they are harming the game instead of promoting it.?

Catch the show exclusively on NewsX as Colonel Balbir Singh, a selector at the camp in Bhopal, joins in the discussion along with Mohammad Aslam Khan in the studio. Pargat Singh, who started the use of identification cards and has been trying to fight the problem, discusses his side of story too. Join them on FOREVER YOUNG as they share their perspective on the issue.

Tune in to catch the action on FOREVER YOUNG on Tuesday, 15 September at 7:30 PM only on NewsX.

Repeats: Wednesday, 2:30 AM, 11:30 AM

MUMBAI: Rediffusion - Y&R Public Relations has appointed Radha Roy as Head of Delhi & National Business Development. Radha comes in with 15 years of experience in the PR and Communications industry. Her last assignment was as an independent consultant and prior to that she was a partner at Genesis Burson-Marsteller - Delhi and Bangalore where she handled clients like Pepsico, Max New York Life etc. Before this she used to head advocacy at CRY.

Divya Radhakrishnan, President - Rediffusion - Y&R PR, ?Radha is a very accomplished PR strategist with expertise across sectors. With all her experience and back-ground I am confident that Radha will play an important part to drive the new vision our group has for the PR practice in the coming future.?

Radha Roy, Head - Delhi and New Business Development, Rediffusion - Y&R PR, ?I?m happy to get into the thick of things in an agency again. My clear focus over the next few months will be to expand the portfolio, bring in best practices and lead the best in class team.?

Rediffusion - Y&R Public Relations has healthy operations in Delhi with clients like Oracle, Airtel, Art D Nox, Revlon, Warner brothers, Grover wines etc.

MUMBAI: ZoOm, the destination for Bollywood glamour and style and Big Bazaar, the largest mart chain for latest and affordable fashion announced aspiring actor Vikas Verma who has passion for style along with Dimple Patel?Miss Photogenic? at Pantaloons Femina Miss India 2009 as the winners of ?India Ka Fashion Star?. The duo from Mumbai succeeded in proving their sense of fashion at the grand finale episode telecasted on Sunday, September 13, 9.30pm on ZoOm. For those who missed the winning moment the repeat telecast has been set for Tuesday, September 15, 2.30pm only on ZoOm.

Winners Vikas Verma and Dimple Patel will be featured with style icons Dhoni and the beautiful Asin as the New Face of Fashion for India ka Fashion Star for a whole year. And, that?s not all?they will get to shop for one year absolutely free at Fashion @Big Bazaar, the popular apparel and accessories outlet at Big Bazaar.

The finale episode showcased all the happenings with selected contestants from Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Kolkata as they captured the center stage to conquer the title of ?India ka Fashion Star?. The thorough training sessions and knowledgeable interactions truly paid off as they flaunted their personal style in three different attires with enthusiasm to impress the esteemed judges from the likes of sensational actor and fashion icon Asin, the elegant designer Shaina NC and ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani.

Also, present at the grand finale to entertain the audience was the singer that created a sensation with her debut song ?Mar Jaawan? in Fashion, Shruti Pathak along with Vikram Sathe- a laugh riot with his excellent punch lines and comic timings.

?India ka Fashion Star? began at all the fashion@big bazaar outlets in search of the new faces depicting the true fashion sense of India. The contest received an overwhelming response across the country, the amount of entries received for the show crossed 50,000 making the concept a big success. Zoom viewers got a chance to vote for their favorite contestants and make them win a chance of a lifetime to be featured with the handsome Dhoni and sensational Asin in the new Fashion@Big bazaar campaign and adding to that free shopping at the Big Bazaar outlet for the next one year.