Calcutta: With the disappointment of the embarrassing loss in Test series against England still fresh in their mind, there was some good news for the Indian team on Friday when Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir made the cut in the final shortlists for the ICC Cricketer of the Year and the ODI Player of the Year awards.
Sachin, who had a below par performance in the four-match Test series with just 273 runs at an average of 34.12, was named along with South African Hashim Amla and Englishmen Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott for the Sir Garfield Sobers Award for the ICC Cricketer of the Year.
Gambhir found a place in the shortlist for ICC ODI Player of the Year award along with Amla, Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara and Australian Shane Watson. The eighth annual LG ICC Awards night, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), will be held on September 12, in London.
Trott and Cook are also shortlisted for the ICC Test Player of the Year alongside England teammate James Anderson and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis at.
The Twenty20 International Performance of the Year sees New Zealand’s Tim Southee short-listed alongside England’s Tim Bresnan, Australia’s Watson and South Africa’s JP Duminy.
This year’s LG ICC Awards includes 10 individual prizes, including the LG People’s Choice Award and also features a newly designed Spirit of Cricket Award which honours a moment by an international player that has most adhered to the Spirit of Cricket. This award is nominated and voted for by the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to recall Ian Bell after the England batsman was ruled run out by the umpire during the second Test at Trent Bridge helped him earn a place in the shortlist for ICC Spirit of Cricket award. Dhoni will have competition from South African Kallis who was named for walking twice during the 2011 Cricket World Cup after clarifying with the opposition fielder if they had caught the ball cleanly.
Dhoni was also shortlisted for LG People’s Choice Award.
