By IANS
Mumbai : Not a single Indian player is among the 12 in the fray for the ‘2007 Cricketer of the Year’ award, the nominations for which were announced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) here Tuesday.
Overall, Indians have an extremely poor representation among the nominations announced for the eight categories of awards that will be presented in Johannesburg Sep 10.
Only two Indians – pacer Zaheer Khan and leg-spinner Anil Kumble – figure among the 20 nominated for the ‘Test Players of Year’ award while just one – Yuvraj Singh – is among the 19 for the ‘ODI (One-day International) Player of the Year’ prize.
Among the women, two Indians figure among the 13 nominated for the ‘Women Cricketer of the Year’. They are all-rounder Rumeli Dhar and pacer Jhulan Goswami.
No Indian, however, finds a place in three other categories — ‘Emerging Player of Year’, ‘Captain of the Year’ and ‘Umpire of the Year’ awards.
Seven were nominated for the ‘Emerging Player of Year’, two – Mahela Jayawardene and Ricky Ponting — for the ‘Captain of the Year’ and four for the ‘Umpire of the Year’ awards.
“There is so much great cricket to reflect upon during the voting period,” said ICC CEO Malcolm Speed while announcing the nominees here.
Australia captain Ponting and his Sri Lanka counterpart Jayawardena have both been nominated in four categories for the annual awards.
Ponting, who secured the Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year awards last year, has once again been named for those categories and also appears among the nominees for the ODI Player and the Captain of the Year awards.
Jayawardena, the 2006 Captain of the Year, has a chance of winning that award again this time and, like Ponting, is also up for consideration in three other individual categories.
Eight other players – West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Australia’s Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Glenn McGrath, Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralidaran, England’s Kevin Pietersen, Shaun Pollock of South Africa and Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf – have been short listed for three individual honours.
This year’s awards include eight individual prizes, including a new one for the ‘Associate ODI Player of the Year’. This prize will recognise and reward the efforts in ODIs of the outstanding player from the six countries – Bermuda, Canada , Ireland , Kenya , the Netherlands and Scotland — outside the ICC full members.
The awards also feature a selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.
Based on the 12 months between Aug 9, 2006, and Aug 8, 2007, the ICC Awards – presented in association with FICA – will take into account performances by players and officials in this period.
The ICC Awards ceremony is now in its fourth year and this would be the first time the function would be staged in South Africa. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005) and Mumbai (2006).
ICC Awards nominees:
Test Player: Mohammad Asif (Pakistan), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies), Stuart Clark (Australia), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Michael Hussey (Australia), Mahela Jayawardena (Sri Lanka), Zaheer Khan (India), Anil Kumble (India), Brian Lara (West Indies), Glenn McGrath (Australia), Muttiah Muralitaran (Sri Lanka), Makhaya Ntini (South Africa), Monty Panesar (England), Kevin Pietersen (England), Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Ryan Sidebottom (England), Shane Warne (Australia), Mohammad Yousuf (Pakistan)
ODI Player: Shane Bond (New Zealand), Mark Boucher (SA), Nathan Bracken (Aus), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Stuart Clark (Aus), Michael Clarke (Aus), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Jacques Kallis (SA), Brett Lee (Aus), Glenn McGrath (Aus), Muttiah Muralidaran (SL), Jacob Oram (NZ), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Shaun Pollock (SA), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)
Emerging Player: Ravinder Bopara (Eng), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Mushfiqur Rahim (Bang), Shaun Tait (Aus), Ross Taylor (NZ), Chris Tremlett (Eng)
Cricketer of the Year: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Jacques Kallis (SA), Glenn McGrath (Aus), Muttiah Muralidaran (SL), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)
Captain of the Year: Mahela Jayawardene (SL), Ricky Ponting (Aus)
Associate ODI Player of the Year: Ashish Bagai (Canada), Andre Botha (Ireland), John Davison (Can), Trent Johnston (Ire), Dwayne Leverock (Bermuda), Kyle McCallan (Ire), Tanmay Mishra (Kenya), Eoin Morgan (Ire), Ashif Mulla (Can), Niall O’Brien (Ire), Thomas Odoyo (Ken), Peter Ongondo (Ken), Irving Romaine (Ber), Abdool Samad (Can), Ryan Ten Doeschate (the Netherlands), Steve Tikolo (Ken), Hiren Varaiya (Ken), Ryan Watson (Scotland)
Umpire of the Year: Mark Benson (England), Steve Bucknor (West Indies), Daryl Harper (Australia), Simon Taufel (Australia)
Women’s Cricketer of the Year: Caitriona Beggs (Ire), Holly Colvin (Eng), Rumeli Dhar (Ind), Maria Fahey (NZ), Jhulan Goswami (Ind), Ashlyn Kilowan (SA), Johmari Logtenberg (SA), Urooj Mumtaz Khan (Pak), Shelley Nitschke (Aus), Rebecca Rolls (NZ), Sajida Shah (Pak), Lisa Sthalekar (Aus), Claire Taylor (Eng)