SMITH IN RUNNING FOR AWARD

STEVE Smith could be crowned international cricketer of the decade next month after being nominated among seven players, including Indian superstar Virat Kohli, for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award.

Australian women’ s captain Meg Lanning and star allrounder Ellyse Perry were also nominated as female players of the decade, with an expert panel to vote on what could be considered a crowning career achievement.

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc was nominated for OD I player of the decade, and limitedovers captain Aaron Finch, who has the highest international T20 score, was the sole Aussie in the T 20 player of the decade category.

The surprise omission from all categories was David Warner.

Despite making almost 15,000 international runs since he burst on to the scene in 2009, the opener was not among the seven nominations inanycategory.

Warner has hit 43 hundreds across all three forms and has over 2000 more international runs than Smith, plus almost 10,000 in T20s for Australia and other competitions.

Smith, who has made 12,101 international runs since his Test debut in 2010, including 35 hundreds, will vie with Kohli, Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, England captain Joe Root, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, A.B. de Villiers, of South Africa, and Sri Lanka’ s Kumar Sang akka ra for the title of player of the decade.

The Australian, who averages 62.84 in Test cricket, is also among the nominees for Test player of the decade.