The world's leading players including the captains of Australia, England, South Africa and Sri Lanka, on Tuesday endorsed the official launch of the ICC Awards – cricket's equivalent of the 'Oscars'.
To be held for the first time this year at London's exclusive Alexandra Palace on 7 September, the ICC Awards seek to recognise and honour international cricket's best players of the past 12 months.
ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said the awards provided a unique celebration and annual opportunity to recognise individual and team performance over the past year.
"The establishment of the ICC Awards is a significant and important initiative for international cricket, and for the players in particular," said Mr Speed.
"The ICC Awards will no doubt generate a great deal of interest, discussion and debate in the cricket community about nominations and selections, and that is something we certainly welcome as a positive story for cricket."
"With seven different awards, cricketers in both forms of the game can be duly recognised for their performances."
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Players from all Full Member countries, as well as Kenya and the United States of America, who will be in London preparing for the ICC Champions Trophy, are expected to attend the Awards ceremony.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said the Awards held special meaning for the players by recognising and honouring the cricketers on an international stage.
"With so many ad hoc cricket awards around the globe, I think it's great that world cricket now has an awards ceremony with genuine meaning -- where winners are decided by their peers and recognised in front of an international audience," Ponting said.
"I know how much the Australian players value the Allan Border Medal at the end of our home season, so to see a similar concept evolve on a world scale is terrific news."
Seven player-related awards will be presented on the night in two categories: individual and team awards.
A voting panel of up to 50 cricket luminaries - including present captains, match officials and former prominent players - is being established to vote on the individual awards.
The team awards will see the announcement of official ICC World XI teams in both Test and One-Day International cricket.
The gala event, to be staged at London's prestigious Alexandra Palace on 7 September, will become an annual feature on the international cricket calendar.
All international players will be invited to attend cricket's equivalent of the `Oscars', with the ceremony to be telecast around the world.
The ICC in association with the Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA) has established the awards.
"Presenting the ICC awards in conjunction with FICA builds on the solid relationship between the ICC and the players' association," added Mr Speed.
"With the organisations working together it adds considerable credence and value to these awards."
Chief Executive of FICA, Tim May, said the ICC Awards were an important way to ensure players around the world are acknowledged for their performances.
"In presenting these awards in conjunction with the ICC, FICA is able to continue its tradition of honouring the world's best-performed cricketers on an annual basis," said Mr May.
"This joint initiative represents a wonderful vehicle to honour the players.
"The players entertain so many people in so many different parts of the world, and it is only fitting that their contributions should be acknowledged through these Awards in front of a worldwide TV audience."
The individual awards are:
Cricketer of the Year;
Test Player of the Year;
One-Day International Player of the Year; and
Emerging Player of the Year.
The team awards are:
Test Team of the Year;
One-Day International Team of the Year; and
Spirit of Cricket Award.
The individual awards will be judged by an Academy of approximately 50 high-profile cricket personalities invited to vote on the awards.
The Academy, which is still being finalised, will include current captains, all members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Referees, former prominent players and respected media representatives.
The Academy will cast votes for the individual awards from a shortlist of players identified on the basis of their performances over the course of the judging period.
Players eligible for the Emerging Player of the Year award must be under 26-years-of-age at the start of the voting period (1 August 2003) and have played no more than five Test matches and/or 10 One-Day Internationals before the start of the voting period.
The Test Team of the Year and the One-Day International Team of the Year will both be World XI sides made up of the best individual international players in the respective forms of the game.
Selection for the World XI teams will be made by an ICC selection panel of five former high profile players to be appointed by the ICC. The teams will include a nominated captain and a twelfth man.
The Spirit of Cricket award will be presented to one international team determined by the captains and match referees. ICC Management when assessing the award will also take the number and nature of any ICC Code of Conduct violations by a team into consideration.
In addition to the seven player-related awards, an award will be presented to the Umpire of the Year. This will be judged from the marks awarded by captains and referees over the course of the year.
The judging period for the ICC Awards is 1 August 2003 to 31 July 2004 and includes all Test and One-Day International matches played during this time.
A full list of the voting Academy will be announced in due course, along with further detail on the voting criteria, timelines and procedure.