Friday, September 18, 2009

Row in South Africa over ICC Awards


ICC's prestigious annual awards appears to have run into a controversy in South Africa. The main reason behind this row is that no South African player is included in the list. Even, prominent figures like national cricket board's chief executive, Gerald Majola is also not happy with ICC. He even said that it seems that South African players have to play Ashes to get a nomination in this elite list. Incidentally, ICC awards are also scheduled to be happen in South Africa only.

South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said that nomination in these awards would have motivated his players to play better in the tournament. Former South African pacer, Allan Donald, is a member of the awards voting panel, admitted that he was surprised by the shortlist. "To me, it looks like the only way to get on these nomination lists is to play the Ashes," said Majola. "Unfortunately, our players don't play for England or Australia. That seems to be the criteria to select these awards. I don't know what the criteria are for these nominations but I simply can't believe that this has happened to South African players. My personal opinion is that this doesn't lend credibility to this year's awards, for sure. To rub salt to our wounds, the awards ceremony is being held in our country".

"I am totally dismayed and disappointed. The last season was one of the best ever for South Africa and there were a lot of outstanding performances by our players. In my personal opinion, there were at least three South African players who should have figured on the shortlist. But I am not going to name them because I don't want to drag our players into this issue when they are preparing for the Champions Trophy. I haven't spoken to them about this either."

ICC panel of awards include former greats of the game and this is also one of the reason that people in South Africa are amused by this.

0 comments:

Post a Comment