Long troubled by match-fixing allegations, the ICC puts on a show of its own
HAVING wired up the game by introducing electronics gadgetry in hope of offering a fair deal to the modern day cricketer, the ICC has now come up with it’s very own awards ceremony. The ICC Awards 2004 is the first official attempt to acknowledge the merits of players on a grand scale.
Tagged as an annual feature, some are even labelling it as the Oscars of cricket. This year, the awards took place at London’s Alexandra Palace on September 7. Only those players were eligible for the awards who had played international cricket between August 1 and July 31. The rest, including the greats and the not so great, took part in the proceedings as spectators.
A total of eight awards divided in two categories, were presented on the night. The two were five individual awards and three team awards.
The individual awards were:
• Cricketer of the Year
• Test player of the Year
• One-Day International Player of the Year
• Emerging Player of the Year; and
• Umpire of the Year.
The Team awards were:
• Team of the Year
• One-Day International team of the Year; and
• Spirit of Cricket Award.
India and Australia featured prominently in every category, while Pakistan had to contend with three names. Umar Gul was nominated in the Player of the Year award while Yasir Hameed, Umar Gul and Imran Farhat were nominated in the Emerging Player of the Year category. Abdul Razzaq was nominated for the One-Day International Player of the Year award.
Nominees for the individual awards were:
EMERGING PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Tino Best (WI), Michael Clarke (Aus), Imran Farhat (Pak), Umar Gul (Pak), Yasir Hameed (Pak). Hamish Marshall (NZ), Irfan Pathan (Ind) and Devon Smith (WI).
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Stephen Fleming (NZ), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Chris Gayle (WI), Adam Gilchrist (Aus), Jason Gillespie (Aus), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Jacques Kallis (SA), V.V.S. Laxman (Ind), Muttiah Muralitharan, (SL), Shaun Pollock (SA), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Abdul Razzaq (Pak), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Heath Streak (Zim), Andrew Symonds (Aus), Chaminda Vaas (SL) and Daniel Vettori (NZ).
TEST PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Rahul Dravid (Ind), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Adam Gilchrist (Aus), Jason Gillespie (Aus), Steve Harmison (Eng), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Brian Lara (WI), V.V.S. Laxman (Ind), Jacques Kallis (SA), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Ricky Ponting (Aus) and Virender Sehwag (Ind).
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Rahul Dravid (Ind), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Steve Harmison (Eng), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Jacques Kallis (SA), Brian Lara (WI), V.V.S. Laxman (Ind), Muttiah Muralitharan (SL), Ricky Ponting (Aus) and Virender Sehwag (Ind).
The nominations came from a 50-member voting academy which included current captains, match officials, media men and legends of the game who each cast 3-2-1 vote (three votes being the highest value from the list of nominees in the individual awards categories.
India’s Irfan Pathan won the Emerging Player of the Year Award. While it was Dravid’s impressive 95.46 Test average throughout last year that helped him get the Cricketer of the Year Award as well as the Best Test Player of the Year Award.
England’s Andrew Flintoff scooped up the Best One-Day Player of the Year Award and Simon Taufel of Australia was adjudged the Umpire of the Year Award.
As expected, Australia took home both the Team of the Year Award and the One-Day International Team of the Year Award. Spirit of Cricket Award was presented to New Zealand.
Cricket’s five illustrious names, Ian Botham, Sunil Gavaskar, Barry Richards, Michael Holding and Richie Benaud, who also chaired the five, formed the panel that selected the winners. I wonder if next year, we’ll also have a Pakistani in the panel! Earlier Richie Benaud had said, “The main problem will be in excluding players from the short list, even though they are brilliant cricketers. It is a challenge, and one approached by Botham, Gavaskar, Holding, Richards and me, with considerable anticipation.”
Malcolm Speed, the CEO of the ICC also voiced his optimism, “The strength of the ICC Awards is that all players, umpires and teams have the chance to be recognized.”
Long troubled by match-fixing allegations, the ICC puts on a show of its own
