Jonathan Trott with his award in London, on Monday. (AP)

Calcutta/London: The Indian team created a fresh controversy by skipping the annual awards function in London on Monday, inviting sharp criticism from the International Cricket Council (ICC), which said such a shameful conduct was not expected from a champion team.

The team claimed that the invite for the function came late but the ICC insisted that the BCCI and the visiting side had been informed well in advance.

“It was quite disappointing that the Indian team did not attend the awards function last night. I know for a fact that my team had invited them some months back. We probably have confirmation of their likely attendance and in fact the very date was scheduled around their availability in London. Well, they haven’t and England team has attended,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

“I know for a fact that they were invited. We sent those invitations through the BCCI. Perhaps that’s the question which should be asked to the BCCI,” Lorgat added.

The ICC said the huge gathering at the ceremony was disappointed to not find the Indian players.

“In fact, I feel more saddened by the number of people, in fact everybody was in attendance last night, who were quite disappointed that India was not there. And that makes me feel more sad and unhappy,” Lorgat added.

Lorgat said such conduct and behaviour from a team like India was not expected.

“It’s a great shame and disappointing that not long ago they were the No.1 Test team in the world. They won the World Cup in such a great style. And there were many fans and people looking forward to their attendance. It’s a shame that they did not attend”, he said.

The Indians, whitewashed 0-4 in the Tests and trailing 0-2 in the ODIs, against England, were interestingly staying at a hotel close to the venue of the function held last night.

Indian team manager Shivlal Yadav expressed his helplessness, claiming that he was informed only at noon by the ICC, by which time “the players were already away, some shopping, some sight-seeing as this was their final day of stay in London.”

BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said that the Board had “no comments” on the issue.

According to sources, the ICC’s first communication to the BCCI was on July 13. They were also informed that three players had been shortlisted for the awards as recently as August 24.

Apparently, the mails had been sent to the BCCI’s general email address and not directly to the secretary or the president. One wonders if a bit of ego came in because the world knew that the awards ceremony was on September 12.

The BCCI, incidentally, informs the Boards, not the individual players.

The very fact that the ICC is headed by Sharad Pawar, means that it is not only an insult to the world governing body, but also to an Indian.

The ICC sources said they have evidence by mail which confirms that the BCCI was aware of the function and had also agreed that the Indian team would attend it.

“If it wasn’t so, the Indian team ought to have left for Cardiff (the venue of the final one-dayer) today itself and not stayed back in London on Monday,” said an ICC spokesman.

“The fact that their schedule included a stay in London on Monday confirms they were in know of it. I don’t know whether the team was advised to attend it. They had been invited some weeks ago, end of August,” the spokesman added.

Union minister Rajeev Shukla, who is also a senior BCCI functionary, attended the function but wasn’t aware that the Indian team wouldn’t be turning up.