ICC Awards background information

28-Aug-2007

The ICC Awards is presented in association with FICA (the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations)

2007 is the fourth year of the ICC Awards; previous ICC Awards have been held in London (2004), Sydney (2005) and Mumbai (2006)

The ICC’s commercial partners for the awards are LG and Swarovski (the manufacturers of each award) and the broadcast partner is ESPN STAR Sports

This year’s ceremony will take place on 10 September at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa

The ICC Awards are made up of eight individual awards and three team awards. The individual awards are:

Captain of the Year
Cricketer of the Year (The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy)
Emerging Player of the Year
ODI Player of the Year
Test Player of the Year
Umpire of the Year
Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Associate ODI Player of the Year*

* Denotes new award for 2007

In addition, players are selected for the ICC Test and ICC ODI Teams of the Year and one of the 16 teams that plays men’s senior international cricket (10 ICC Full Members and six Associates) is chosen for the Spirit of Cricket Award

The winners of each individual award and the Spirit of Cricket Award will receive a crystal trophy created by Swarovski

The 12 players chosen in each of the ICC Test and ODI Teams of the Year each receive commemorative caps

The Test and ODI teams and the nominees for the individual Full Member men’s awards are chosen by the ICC Selection Panel. This year it is made up of the following individuals:

Sunil Gavaskar (Chairman) – Ex-India batsman, captain and current Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee; the first player (and still one of only five in history) to top 10,000 Test runs; an ICC CWC winner with India in 1983; only Sachin Tendulkar (37) has more Test hundreds than Sunil’s 34.

Chris Cairns – Former New Zealand all-rounder whose unbeaten century led the Black Caps to their first major silverware, the ICC Knock-out in 2000; he is one of only seven players in history (the others are Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Sir Richard Hadlee, Jacques Kallis, Imran Khan and Shaun Pollock) to score 3000 runs and take 200 wickets at Test level.

Gary Kirsten – The first South Africa player (and still one of only four in history) to play 100 Tests; only three players (Saeed Anwar, Vivian Richards and Sanath Jayasuriya) have scored more runs in a ODI innings than Gary’s 188* against the UAE in the 1996 ICC CWC; it remains the highest score in the history of the tournament.

Iqbal Qasim – The former Pakistan left-arm spinner is the ninth-highest wicket-taker in his country’s Test history with 171 victims in 50 matches between 1976 and 1988; his haul includes 34 wickets against India with 29 of them in India, including match figures 10-175 in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1979 and a series-winning 9-121 in Bangalore in 1987.

Alec Stewart – The former wicketkeeper-batsman has played more matches than any other England player in Test and ODI history and scored more ODI runs than any of his countrymen too; only Graham Gooch among England batsmen can top Alec’s haul of Test runs. Captained his country in 15 Tests and 41 ODIs and stayed at the top level past his 40 th birthday; also scored a century in his 100 th Test.

The selectors use their knowledge, skill and judgment to assess players’ performances during the voting period of 9 August 2006 – 8 August 2007

The long lists they have compiled for the individual awards will be voted upon by the ICC voting academy, a group of 56 that is made up of current ICC Full Member captains (10), the Emirates Elite Panels of match referees and umpires (18) and legends of the game and members of the media (28)

The members of the “legends and media” group of the voting academy will be announced in due course

The Spirit of Cricket Award is voted upon by the Emirates Elite Panel match referees and umpires and the captains of the ICC Full Members

Players eligible for the Emerging Player of the Year award must be under 26 years of age at the start of the voting period (9 August 2006) and have played no more than five Test matches and/or 10 ODIs before the start of the voting period

For the Women’s Player of the Year each ICC Member that played international cricket during the voting period is eligible to nominate two players

The resultant list is then voted upon by an academy of 17 leading former players and influential figures in the women’s game including members of the media.

These long lists will be reduced to final shortlists on or around 4 September

A total of 66 players have been nominated for the eight individual awards this year (53 men and 13 women)

Of the 53 men nominated, 35 come from ICC Full Members and 18 are included in the nominations for ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year

Eight players – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralidaran, Kevin Pietersen, Shaun Pollock and Mohammad Yousuf – have been nominated for three awards (Test Player, ODI Player and Cricketer of the Year)

Two players – Mahela Jayawardena and Ricky Ponting – have been nominated for four awards (Test Player, ODI Player, Captain and Cricketer of the Year)

There will definitely be a new name on the Women’s Cricketer of the Year Award as last year’s winner Karen Rolton has not been nominated this year

Past winners of ICC Awards are:

2004

Cricketer of the Year (The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Rahul Dravid ( India)
Emerging Player of the Year – Irfan Pathan ( India)
ODI Player of the Year – Andrew Flintoff ( England)
Test Player of the Year - Rahul Dravid ( India)
Umpire of the Year – Simon Taufel
Spirit of Cricket – New Zealand

2005

Cricketer of the Year (The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Andrew Flintoff ( England) & Jacques Kallis ( South Africa) – joint winners
Emerging Player of the Year – Kevin Pietersen ( England)
ODI Player of the Year – Kevin Pietersen ( England)
Test Player of the Year – Jacques Kallis ( South Africa)
Umpire of the Year – Simon Taufel
Spirit of Cricket – England

2006

Cricketer of the Year (The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy) – Ricky Ponting ( Australia)
Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Karen Rolton ( Australia)
Emerging Player of the Year – Ian Bell ( England)
Captain of the Year – Mahela Jayawardena ( Sri Lanka)
ODI Player of the Year – Michael Hussey ( Australia)
Test Player of the Year – Ricky Ponting ( Australia)
Umpire of the Year – Simon Taufel
Spirit of Cricket - England

Previous ICC selection panel members were: 2004 – Sunil Gavaskar (Chairman), Richie Benaud, Ian Botham, Michael Holding and Barry Richards; 2005 – Sunil Gavaskar (Chairman), David Gower, Sir Richard Hadlee, Rodney Marsh and Courtney Walsh; 2006 – Sunil Gavaskar (Chairman), Allan Donald, Ian Healy, Arjuna Ranatunga and Waqar Younis.