London: Former Australian captain Richie Benaud will chair a five-man selection panel, which includes Sunil Gavaskar, to commence the judging for next month’s ICC awards.

Benaud joins Ian Botham, Gavaskar, Michael Holding and Barry Richards.

The panel will develop a shortlist of players in the four individual award categories for the 50-member voting academy for each individual award and select the ICC Test and one-day teams of the year.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the appointment of the panel was the first and foremost step of a comprehensive selection process to judge the world’s best players of the past 12 months.(PTI)