Tillakaratne Dilshan bagged three top awards, including the Cricketer of the Year award, while prolific all-rounder Angelo Mathews and fast bowler Nuwan Kulasekera walked away with two awards each at the CEAT Sri Lanka Cricket Awards gala held at Waters` Edge on Friday.

Dilshan, who was recognized as the world`s best T20 cricketer at the ICC`s Cricket`s awards held four weeks back in Johannesburg for his innovative and aggressive batting in the wham-bang version, was also named the ODI Batsman of the year and the People`s Player of the Year.

Dilshan is a worthy winner of the Cricketer of the Year award at the local cricket Oscars following some scintillating batting performances during the past twelve months where he single handedly guided Sri Lanka to the finals of the World Twenty20 tournament in England in June with a show- stealing 96 off 57 balls against West Indies in the semi-finals. He was named the Man of the Tournament, with a total of 317 runs at 52.83.

Dilshan has scored 1069 runs during the last 12 months with an average of 65 with four centuries and a half century in Tests while in ODIs the opener has amassed 647 runs in 14 matches with an impressive average of 49.76 which include two centuries and two half tons. In ten T20 matches since October 2008, Dilshan has cored 436 runs with an average of 48.44 with five half tons.

All rounder Angelo Mathew was named the Emerging Player of the Year in addition to been selected as the ODI All rounder of the Year while Nuwan Kulasekera grabbed the best bowler awards in Tests and ODIs.

Mathews, who made his ODI debut a year ago has been a consistent member of the national team and has shown immense commitment and promise during his short career which earned him both titles at the gala ceremony sponsored by CEAT.

The top ranked ODI bowler in the ICC rankings, Kulasekera has been Sri Lanka`s main strike bowler in last twelve months taking the baton from veteran Chaminda Vaas, and was rightly awarded Test and ODI bowler of the year for his mesmerizing performances.

Tilan Samaraweera, who scored 1235 runs in 9 matches with an average of 82.33 which includes two consecutive double centuries, was the Test Batsman of the Year.

While special awards were presented to Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttaih Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara for their contributions to Sri Lanka cricket, the efforts of young cricketers in the domestic circuit, the umpires and women`s cricketers too were recognized for their outstanding performances during the year.