The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday announced the introduction of the 'ICC Player of the Month' awards to recognise and celebrate the best performances of both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year.

In a media release, ICC stated that an independent ICC voting academy comprising former players, broadcasters, and journalists from around the world, will team up with fans to vote for the ICC men's and women's player of the month respectively.

Youngsters such as Mohammed Siraj (India), Washington Sundar (India), T. Natarajan (India), Rishabh Pant (India), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (Afghanistan) to established players such as Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Joe Root (England), Steve Smith (Australia), Marizanne Kapp (South Africa), Nadine de Klerk (South Africa), Nida Dar (Pakistan) will be among the candidates for the month of January.

"The ICC Player of the Month is a great way to connect with fans of the sport and celebrate performances of their favourite players through the year. It gives us all an opportunity to acknowledge world class performances on the field by male and female cricketers and they have been in abundance throughout January," Geoff Allardice, ICC General Manager - Cricket, said.

The nomination and voting process:

The three nominees for each of the categories will be determined by the ICC Awards nominations committee based on on-field performances and overall achievements during the period of that month (the first to the last day of each calendar month.)

This shortlist is then voted for by the independent ICC voting academy and fans around the world.

The voting academy will submit their votes by email and will retain a 90 per cent share of the vote. Subsequently, on the 1st day of each month, fans registered with the ICC will be able to submit votes via the ICC website and will have a 10 per cent share of the vote. Winners will be announced every second Monday of the month on the ICC's digital channels.