Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mumbai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday appeared at a loss to explain the shock omission of dashing Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni from the list of nominated players for the ICC ODI Player of the Year award.

Trying to justify the glaring goof-up, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the list of nominations contained two other wicketkeeper-batsmen. “Sangakkara has scored 1,700 runs last year while Adam Gilchrist has a strike rate of 110 to his credit,” Speed said at a media conference when asked about Dhoni’s case.

But does the presence of two other ’keepers prevent the panellists from nominating another wicketkeeper-batsman, specially if he happens to average better than 15 of the 17 players nominated for the award?

“The selection panel has made the nominations. Why Dhoni was not included can best be answered by them,” Speed said. “Dhoni does not qualify any more for the Emerging Player of the Year award as he has crossed the number of matches (Tests and ODIs) specified.”

Dhoni, who accumulated 1,170 runs from 36 ODIs at an average of 55.71 in the last one year starting August 1, was ignored by the Sunil Gavaskar-led panel which nominated players for various awards to be given away here on October 23. The Jharkhand player also has a superb career strike rate of over 100 per innings.

Meanwhile, Indian captain Rahul Dravid on Thursday said that he was honoured to be nominated for the ICC awards but it’s not something he focuses on. “I guess it’s nice to be nominated”, Dravid said on being nominated in four categories including the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers award for the ICC Cricketer of the Year.

“In the end, it’s probably a reflection of the performances of the year. Yes, there are some great players in the list and nominations... People have really performed well in the current year. Being amongst them is a nice feeling,” he said in Bangalore on Thursday. “(But) I don’t really focus on it. Being nominated or not nominated for awards is not what really excites me or motivates me.”

Asked if he was surprised that Dhoni was not nominated for any of the awards, he said he was not sure about the criteria. “It’s a question one should ask Dhoni whether it really matters to him,” he added.