And the winners of the 2008 ICC awards are ...

The ICC has just announced the list of winners in various categories for the 2008 ICC awards. The list of nominations was announced a couple of days ago. The winners are:

• Best cricketer in a female role: Charlotte Edwards
  
• Best cricketer in a male role: Shivnarine Chanderpaul
  
• Best male cricketer in tests: Dale Steyn
  
• Best male cricketer in one-day internationals: Mahendra Singh Dhoni
  
• Stevie Wonder Steve Bucknor award for best supporting role: Simon Taufel
  
• Best extra: Ryan ten Doeschate
  
• Best debut: Ajantha Mendis
  
• Best one-hit wonder: Yuvraj Singh
  
• Best behaved unit: Sri Lanka

In addition, test and ODI teams of the year were also announced, with Graeme Smith & Ricky Ponting captaining them.

Labels: ajantha mendis, chanderpaul, dhoni, icc, icc awards, steyn, taufel, yuvraj

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And the nominees for the 2008 ICC awards are ...

The ICC announced the nominees for the 2008 ICC awards, which will be announced on 10 September in Dubai. The original venue was Pakistan, but it is reliably learnt that media coverage of the event would have been significantly impacted because journalists & photographers from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies & England were concerned over the safety and security arrangements that were promised.

The usual suspects (Chanderpaul, Mahela, Kallis & Taufel) are very much in the reckoning. The surprising aspect is that Bracken is the only Australian player to be nominated. Is it an indication of Australia being less dominant? Or is it an indication that Australia's wins are coming about due to team efforts (with support from umpires & match referees, perhaps!)? Or do we assume that the selection panel which had distinguished cricketers like Sidath Wettimuny and Athar Ali Khan didn't really like Aussies?

My picks:

• Cricketer: Graeme Smith
  
• Test player: Shivnarine Chanderpaul
  
• ODI player: Nathan Bracken (Australian & bowlers quota selection)
  
• Emerging player: Stuart Broad (by a whisker, ahead of Ishant Sharma & Ajantha Mendis - mainly because of his all-round ability)
  
• Associate player: NFI
  
• Twenty20 International Performance: Yuvraj Singh (notice that it is a 'performance' award, which means a one-off event counts)
  
• Women's player: NFI
  
• Spirit of cricket: Australia (isn't in the nominees list though, strangely!)
  
• Umpire: Aleem Dar (placating Pakistan for the Champions Trophy fiasco)

Previous coverage:

• 2007: None. No idea why we didn't cover the event. Maybe we were protesting against the usage of an asafoetida brand.
  
• 2006: Nominations, Shortlist & Winners.
  
• 2005: Nominations, Shortlist & Winners.
  
• 2004: Selection panel & Winners.

Labels: icc, icc awards

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Australia, all the way

Ricky Ponting: Player of the Year.

Ricky Ponting: Test Player of the Year.

Mike Hussey: One Day International Player of the Year.

Simon Taufel: Umpire of the Year.

Karen Rolton: Women's Player of the Year.

The Rest of the World who got some recognition were:

Mahela Jayawardene: Captain of the Year.

Ian Bell: Emerging Player of the Year.

Rahul Dravid: Captain of the World Test team of the Year.

England: Spirit of cricket award.

Photos from the event.

Some contextual posts:

2004: Announcement of ICC awards, Panel, Panel chairman, LG as a sponsor, Athar Ali Khan as a judge, Swarowski prizes, the Rahul Dravid show and Harsha Bhogle's comment.

2005: Original list, short-list, Kallis and Flintoff are Players of the Year

2006: Original nominations list and short-list.

Labels: icc awards, taufel

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:40 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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ICC awards shortlist

The ICC announced the shortlist for the third ICC Awards.

The list, pared down from the nominees list announced in September, has Ponting listed as a potential winner in all the categories he was listed in (Player of the Year, Test player of the year, ODI player of the year and captain of the year).

Mohammad Asif, charged with a doping offence, is still in the final list.

Simon Taufel could win another 'Umpire of the year' award while India gets a token nomination for the 'Spirit of Cricket award', which would have been unthinkable when Sourav Ganguly was captain, given his frequent visits to interrupt the match referee's siesta.

Labels: icc awards

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:44 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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ICC Awards nominations

The first list of nominations for the ICC awards has been released. There're two new categories: Captain of the Year and Women's Cricketer of the Year. The period for which performances are considered has also been extended by a week, 1 Aug 2005 to 8 Aug 2006, compared to a deadline of 31 Jul in the last two years.

The list of nominees in the test and one-day categories has most of the usual suspects. Monty Panesar, Alastair Cook and Mohammed Asif are the notable inclusions in the 'Emerging Player' category.

The one nomination for 'Captain of the Year' which dragged my attention was that of Michael Vaughan. In the 53 weeks from 1 Aug 2005, England won 2 and lost 1 test out of the 6 it played and he didn't captain England in a single one-dayer in this period. The wins were at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge. Of course, the wins also meant that England won the Ashes. But I'm not convinced two test wins are enough to win him a 'Captain of the Year' award when he did nothing after that.

Simon Taufel is on a hat-trick in the 'Umpire of the Year' category. But I'm backing Aleem Dar to win it.

Take a look at the ICC award winners for 2004 and 2005.

Labels: icc awards

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Women cricketers get awards too

In a significant move towards bringing women's cricket into the mainstream, the ICC announced today that a Women's Cricketer of the Year award was being instituted with effect from this year as part of the ICC's awards ceremony later this year.

Labels: icc awards, women

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:02 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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ICC awards announced

The 2005 ICC awards are out.

Jacques Kallis and Andrew Flintoff shared the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the Player of the year. In the first ever tie in the history of the ICC awards (this is the second year!), both players were tied on 86 votes. Effectively, fifty members couldn't get their act together and pick one over the other.

Jacques Kallis wins the Test player award.

I'm curious to know why Kallis' achievement in winning the Test player of the year award doesn't give him an advantage over Flintoff in being named as the Player of the year.

Kevin Pietersen has won the Emerging player and ODI player awards.

The England team won the Spirit of Cricket award.

Simon Taufel was voted the Umpire of the Year award for the second year running.

Photos from the event.

The ICC announced its World ODI team, of which three players - Atapattu, Inzamam and Naved-ul Hasan Rana weren't even picked for the Super Series and Dravid was not in the first list.

The ICC's World Test team included Inzamam, who was picked as a replacement as well as Vaas and Kumble who were not even picked.

I suppose this selection does expose the original selections for the Super Series as being based purely on hype and star value rather than form or cricketing ability. Alternately, the Super Series selections were accurate and these two World teams aren't a true reflection of the players' abilities and form.

The absence of any bowlers in the players' awards list, Flintoff's presence notwithstanding, is further proof that international cricket and voting panels are sorely biased in favour of batsmen. As a self-proclaimed erstwhile member of the bowling fraternity, I vehemently oppose these acts!

Labels: icc awards, pietersen, taufel

Thus spake Jagadish @ 5:50 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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ICC prunes awards shortlist

Two weeks after announcing the nominations for the various ICC Awards categories, the ICC today announced a further culling.

As a result, several players have now been dropped from the categories to which they were nominated.

Dravid and Ponting are left out from the 'Player of the Year' list.

Chanderpaul, Lara, Martyn, Kumble, McGrath, Ponting, Kaneria, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Harbhajan and Younis Khan drop off from the 'Test Player of the Year' list. There goes my prediction on Sehwag getting the award. Ironically enough, although Inzamam is a contender for award, the ICC did not think he was good enough to represent the World XI. He was then called up when Tendulkar withdrew. Incensed, he refused the invitation and finally accepted it.

The 'ODI Player of the Year' has a lot of censoring as well. From the original list, Dravid, Gibbs, Inzamam, McGrath, Kemp, Ponting, Sangakkara, Shoaib Malik, Graeme Smith, Trescothick, Vaas, Vettori and Youhana drop out. There goes yet another prediction on Inzamam winning the prize.

As for the 'Emerging Player of the Year', Gambhir and Manjurul Islam Rana exit stage left.

Now my picks are
Player of the Year: Flintoff
Test Player of the Year: Warne
ODI Player of the Year: Flintoff or Lee
Emerging Player of the Year: Pietersen

Who're your picks?

Labels: icc awards, pietersen

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:25 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Status quo in cricket - sponsored by the ICC awards

The fact that the Indian team continues to fluff its lines in finals of one-day tournaments isn't the only indicator that status quo persists. The ICC's picks for the various awards are pretty much the same as last year.

Last year's nominations for the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, given to the player of year, were Dravid, Flintoff, Harmison, Hayden, Kallis, Lara, Laxman, Murali, Ponting and Sehwag. Dravid won the award. This year's list reads: Dravid, Flintoff, Gilchrist, Inzamam, Kallis, McGrath and Ponting.

Last year's nominations for the Test player of the year were: Dravid, Flintoff, Gilchrist, Gillespie, Harmison, Hayden, Kallis, Lara, Laxman, Murali, Ponting, Sehwag. This year's list is Chanderpaul, Gilchrist, Inzamam, Kallis, Lara, Martyn, Kumble, McGrath, Ponting, Kaneria, Sangakkara, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Warne and Younis Khan.

Last year's nominations for the one-day player of the year were: Fleming, Flintoff, Gayle, Gilchrist, Gillespie, Hayden, Kallis, Laxman, Murali, Pollock, Ponting, Razzaq, Streak, Symonds, Tendulkar, Vaas and Vettori. This year's picks are Dravid, Flintoff, Gibbs, Gilchrist, Inzamam, Lee, McGrath, Kemp, Pietersen, Ponting, Sangakkara, Shoaib Malik, Smith, Symonds, Trescothick, Vaas, Vettori and Youhana.

Spot the differences please. Hang on, there is one BIG name missing. He has been elbowed out. In fact, his participation in the Super Series is under a cloud and he needs to confirm his availability by next week.

The selection panel comprises Sunil Gavaskar, David Gower, Sir Richard Hadlee, Rod Marsh and Courtney Walsh. No place for Athar Ali Khan.

Oh, and I am sticking my neck out on my picks for the "Insert your favourite sponsor here" ICC awards.

Player of the year: Flintoff
Test player of the year: Sehwag
ODI player of the year: Inzamam
Emerging player of the year: Pietersen

What are your selections? Chatter away.

Labels: icc awards, pietersen

Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:56 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Rahul Dravid made the ICC Awards ceremony his own a couple of days ago by cornering the Player of the year and Test player of the year awards. However he was India's only representative on the World Test XI. There're two ways of looking at it:

1. He was the only world class performer in the side last year.
   
2. The Indian team is greater than the sum of its parts.
   

If you go back to around the mid-90s, the situation was quite identical. Tendulkar would invariably find his way into just about any world XI of the era. Yet the Indian team was really going nowhere. Test victories were only at home, tours abroad were guaranteed to be embarassing to watch for Indian cricket lovers. Aside from him, only Azharuddin, Kumble and to some extent Srinath would ever come into contention for a place in a world XI. So it would be fair to say that in Tendulkar's case, argument #1 holds - he was the only world class performer in those sides.

Yet, I'd not say thats the case currently with Dravid and the Indian team. True, over the last 3 years he has developed into being the fulcrum around which the Indian team's fortunes rotate - even more so than Tendulkar, at the risk of sounding heretic. Yet, this Indian team has at least 4 others who'd normally be very high on the lists of several selectors for a spot in a world XI comprised of achievers in 2003. Sehwag and Laxman would be definite shoo-ins while Tendulkar would be unlikely to make it after some inconsistent performances. Kumble's bowling heroics in Australia and Pakistan would have definitely merited him a place, if not for Messrs Murali and Warne staking their own claims. So again, the situation is similar to the mid-90s when there was one definite world XI player with a couple of other possible contenders for a spot in the side. The difference though is in the results. India drew 1-1 against Australia away, and could very nearly have won the series if not for some daft batting in Melbourne on the first two days and some poor captaincy and bowling in Sydney. An overseas test series win finally materialized in Pakistan preceded by the one-day series win. The results imply that the team was able to pool in all the resources together and win in spite of the absence of Harbhajan & Zaheer and a settled opening pair. Certainly it is a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. We'll know whether the team is on the way up when the challenges of playing Australia and South Africa at home present themselves.

Labels: icc awards

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'The Wall' stamps his authority by bagging the Test Player of the Year and the ICC Player of the Year awards. The teen sensation from India, Irfan Pathan, was adjudged the Emerging Player of the Year and Andrew Flintoff won the One-Day International Player of the Year award.


Tendulkar misses out on the Test XI for the year, but is in the ODI XI along with Sehwag.

Labels: icc awards

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All the awards winners at the ICC awards will receive trophies crafted by Swarovski. Rumours that Swarovski wishes to give Kasprowicz a special prize for best comeback have been vehemently denied by the ICC and Swarovski.

Labels: icc awards

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Athar Ali Khan, the legendary Bangladesh player, joins the likes of co-legends Benaud, Viv Richards, Steve Waugh and Miandad in the 50 member panel for the ICC awards.

Labels: icc awards

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LG Electronics will be a platinum partner of the ICC awards.

Labels: icc awards

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:21 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Richie Benaud, the elder statesman of cricket, will chair the ICC awards panel. He can pick on the brains of his fellow panelists who managed to achieve a few insignificant things during their cricketing careers: Ian Botham, Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Holding and Barry Richards.

Labels: icc awards

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:43 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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A galaxy of former cricketers, most of who are now in the media have been selected by the ICC to shortlist the winners of the ICC awards.

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Thus spake Jagadish @ 7:26 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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The ICC has come up with the ICC awards. This is the first effort by the ICC to institute its own awards. The awards will obviously have more weightage with players unlike the few hundred prizes which are given out by various sponsors and organizations all around the year. Obviously the ICC does need to ensure that the awards procedure is transparent and involves the right people, otherwise the current wave of positive feelings it is generating amongst cricketers will disappear.

Labels: icc awards

Thus spake Jagadish @ 3:22 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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