ICC Awards 2008-09

Mitchell Johnson capped a tumultuous year by becoming the sixth winner of the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy, after being named as the ICC World Player of the Year at cricket's annual awards ceremony in Johannesburg. Johnson, who shot to prominence during Australia's memorable series win in South Africa in February and March, claimed the title ahead of his fellow nominees, Gautam Gambhir, Andrew Strauss and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

India's star opener, Gambhir, was named as Test Player of the Year, after an impressive haul of 1269 runs at 84.60 in the eight Tests during the qualification period. "It's been a dream run for me. I never thought it could be like this but life has changed for me and I am very happy," said Gambhir. "As a unit we have played very well and I am just glad to contribute to the overall success of the team."

Mahendra Singh Dhoni retained his title of ODI Player of the Year, seeing off competition from his team-mates, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, as well as West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Dhoni played 24 ODIs during the voting period, scoring 967 runs at an average of 60.43 and strike-rate of 86.63, and also claimed 26 dismissals as he led India to 17 victories including a 5-0 demolition of England.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was a worthy winner of the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year award, after capping a sensational World Twenty20 tournament in England in June with a show-stealing 96 off 57 balls against West Indies in the semi-final. His performance at The Oval, in which no other Sri Lanka batsman managed more than 24, included two sixes and 12 fours, and though Sri Lanka went on to lose the final to Pakistan, Dilshan was nevertheless named as the Man of the Tournament, with a total of 317 runs at 52.83.

Australia's fast bowler, Peter Siddle, was named as the Emerging Player of the Year, after claiming 49 wickets at 28.93 in the 12 matches since his debut at Mohali in October 2008, including five-wicket hauls against South Africa at Sydney and England at Headingley, both of which led to memorable victories. Siddle beat his fellow Australia seamer, Ben Hilfenhaus, to the award, as well as England's Graham Onions and New Zealand's Jesse Ryder.

New Zealand's cricketers were considered to have conducted themselves better on the field than any other nation in 2008-09, as they claimed the Spirit of Cricket award for the second time, having also won during the inaugural Awards ceremony at Alexandra Palace in London in 2004. The judgement was made by the ICC's umpires and match referees, in conjunction with the ten full-member captains, and Daniel Vettori accepted the accolade on behalf of his colleagues, only 48 hours after reversing a run-out appeal against Paul Collingwood in their must-win group match against England.

World Test Team of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India), Andrew Strauss (England), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Thilan Samaraweera (Sri Lanka), Michael Clarke (Australia), MS Dhoni (India, capt & wk), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Stuart Broad (England), Dale Steyn (South Africa), Harbhajan Singh (India, 12th man)

World ODI team of the year: Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak), 12th man: Thilan Thushara (SL)

Umpire of the Year: Pakistan's Aleem Dar.

Women's Player of the Year: England's Clare Taylor.

Associate Player of the Year: Ireland's captain, Will Porterfield.

In the eye of a billion dreams

High on confidence after a tri-nation series victory in Sri Lanka, a week before the start of ICC Champions Trophy, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni knows what it takes to compete with some of the world’s best ODI sides.

In terms of variety and team composition, India seem to have almost every thing to give them a chance to win back the Champions Trophy which they jointly shared with Sri Lanka in rain-drenched Colombo in 2002.

India’s biggest strength lies in their batting and Sachin Tendulkar is back to his best after a masterful century in the tri-series final against Lanka on September 14. Rahul Dravid, back in the side after two years, has already displayed how technique and defence play key roles in the 50-over game. Both Tendulkar and Dravid add a cooling effect on the team as well.

And, there is no shortage of firework, even if Virender Sehwag is missing from the squad due to injury. Gautam Gambhir should be fit enough to give India a blitzkrieg start while India have in Yuvraj Singh and skipper MS Dhoni to consolidate in the middle overs.

In the absence of Zakeer Khan, senior offie Harbhajan Singh is all eager to spearhead India’s attack. Bhajji showed his intensity while grabbing a 5-wicket haul against the Sri Lankans in the Compaq Cup final. However, on South African tracks, the tall and lanky Ishant Sharma should be able to bowl in the right areas and Dhoni will expect Ashish Nehra, RP Singh and Praveen Kumar to play ideal foils.

STRENGTHS

BATTING: Gambhir, Tendulkar, Dravid (highest scorer for India in Champions Trophy after Sourav Ganguly with 547 runs at 49.72), Yuvraj, Dhoni and not to forget the hitting abilities of young Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan make for a complete line-up. If this line-up acclimatizes itself with the playing and weather conditions in Johannesburg and Centurion, batting should not be a concern even though at this time of the year, fresh pitches in South Africa offer more assistance to the faster bowlers, generally a nemesis for Indian batsmen.

SPIN BOWLING: One of the good byproducts of T20 cricket or the IPL is the rise of part-time slow bowlers like Yuvraj, Raina and Pathan in the current limited overs setup. Not only can they bowl economically and go through their overs quickly, they can entice settled batsmen to throw their wickets. Together with the wicket-taking ability of Harbhajan, the Indian slow bowling department looks quite a handful.

WEAKNESSES

FIELDING: "Our fielding standards, compared to the ones we had in Australia in 2007, is now very different...” -- Dhoni’s statement in a pre-tournament press conference is testimony to the fact that the fielding of Team India has gone down tremendously in recent times.This calls for upping the ante by the younger blokes like Raina, Gambhir and RP Singh and the likes Yuvraj, who now fields at mid-on or mid-off and not the customary backward point position owing to his knee concerns.

PACE BOWLING: Usually a facet which remains a strength for many of the participating teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the pace bowing department is arguably weaker than it looks. Ishant, aiming to test the opposition batsmen with timely bouncers in this series, does not have an impressive economy rate (5.66) while Nehra, RP and Praveen can be very erratic at times.

KEY PLAYERS:
Sachin Tendulkar: His hunger for runs never ceases. The in-form master blaster will again cherish the job of giving flying starts in the absence of Virender Sehwag. In 14 Champions Trophy matches, Tendulkar has scored 433 runs at 39.96 with a best of 141 against Australia in Dhaka in 1998.

Yuvraj Singh: When in good form, his sheer presence at the crease can torment the opposition captain, as he makes batting looks smooth and easy with free flowing drives and lofted shots that easily clear the ground. And don’t forget his six 6s in South Africa during the inaugural T20 World Cup.
MS Dhoni: Not the best of starters, Dhoni tries to bat through the innings and score quick runs in the slog overs after accumulating them through ones and twos during the middle overs.

Harbhajan Singh: Indian’s main bowling weapon in the middle overs enjoys a great economy rate in Champions Trophy (3.64) along with 11 wickets in 10 matches at a bowling average of 32.45.

Champions Trophy record

Altogether with nine wins and five losses, India, in the 16 matches (including the 2 no-results final of the 2002 edition) of the Champions Trophy, enjoy a success rate of 64.28 in this 50-over tournament.

FULL SQUAD: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicket-keeper), Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Kartik, Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, RP Singh.

The 'next Tendulkar' from the West Indies?

If former player Keith Arthurton is to be believed, the West Indies unearthed the next Sachin Tendulkar in a seven-year-old hailing from Hannah Estate in Tortola.

Arthurton conducted a three-day coaching clinic this weekend on the islands of Tortola and Virgin Gorda and had no doubt whatsoever that he has seen the next Tendulkar in Aidan Gorege.

"While he was batting, I heard someone in the crowd shout out that he looked like Sachin Tendulkar and I thought the same thing because of the way he bats, his stance and his attitude," said Arthurton, who represented West Indies in 33 Tests and 105 ODI between 1988 and 1999.

"You don't really see that in kids who are that young but he has something special in him and the local coaches should work with him so that he can develop his cricket skills," Arthurton said of Aidan, who is originally from Dominica.

The youngest participant of the camp, Aidan looks older than his age and has a stance which is almost a replica of Tendulkar's, according to a report in the Anguilla News.

Talking about the kid's technique, Arthurton said, "His stance is very good and he moved his feet at the right times and with ease. I certainly would like to work with him in future as I think he has the potential to develop into a very good player," Arthurton said.

Star players Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dinesh Ramdin also turned up at the camp to share their experience with the kids.

A 20-over match at the H Lavity Stoutt Community College marked the end of the camp.

Dravid adds value to the team: Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar feels Rahul Dravid's after close to two years has added "value" to the ODI team and his experience would come in handy during the tri-series in Sri Lanka the subsequent Champions Trophy in South Africa .

"It should help the team. He brings in a lot of experience on the table and also a lot of skill. I think his will be good value addition to the team," Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar said the team is fitter and hungrier after wrapping up a four-day training camp in Bangalore to prepare for the tri-series in Sri Lanka, where New Zealand the third team.

"The camp has ended on a positive note and the team looks pretty solid and hungry. Sri Lanka is one place which is not very free scoring," he said.

"It will be a challenge for some of the strokeplayers in our team. As boundaries can be difficult to come by, there will be a lot of running between the wickets involved," he added.

Tendulkar said all the three participating teams were evenly matched and it is difficult to say which one of them would eventually win the short series.

"We are an extremely good fielding unit and we turned around games with our fielding. It is a misconception to assume that New Zealand and Sri Lanka have an edge over us.

"We run well between the wickets, our run out conversion is good, our catching ability is amongst the best, our bowlers are much more disciplined as they don't bowl wides and no balls. I think we are three evenly matched teams," Tendulkar told espnstar.com.

Asked whether the Indians had decoded mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis , who has tormented them in the past, Tendulkar said, "These are the contests created by the media. Ajantha Mendis, Muthiah Muralitharan or Chaminda Vaas are all good bowlers and we as a team respect them. At the same time we have a plan for each one of them."

"On the last trip batsmen like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir handled Mendis and Murali really well. I think we can build on that. These youngsters bring a fresh approach and mindset which then rubs off on others which helps the team produce good results," he added.

Cricket Tycoons

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has emerged as the highest-earning cricketer in the last 12 months. A recent Forbes study reveals that the Indian skipper has pushed Sachin Tendulkar to the 2nd place. Despite all the riches from the IPL and endorsements, the Indians are nowhere close to the Tigers, Beckhams and the Bryants of the world.

MS Dhoni
Earnings: $10 million
Major Sponsors: Reebok, GE Money, Pepsi
Has made $8 mn of endorsement income over the last year. Is one of the hottest properties in terms of endorsements and has cashed in on that





Sachin Tendulkar
Earnings: $8 million
Major Sponsors: Adidas, Canon, Royal Bank of Scotland
Tendulkar, widely considered as one of the greatest batsman ever, is one of five IPL cricketers with “icon” status, meaning he’s exempt from the league’s player auction and instead automatically receives a paycheque 15 per cent larger than his highest paid Mumbai teammate. Though the MI disappointed again in the second season, it doesn’t seem to bother the Little Master’s earnings.


Yuvraj Singh
Earnings: $5.5 million
Major Sponsors: Fiat, Reebok, Microsoft
Earned $4 mn from endorsements and other commercial ventures off the field, including providing a voice in an animated film .





Rahul Dravid
Earnings: $5 million
Major Sponsors: Castrol, Reebok
Earns slightly over $1 mn annually from Bangalore. His return to the ODI squad is sure to boost the commercial interest in him.




Andrew Flintoff
Earnings: $4 million
Major Sponsors: Puma, Volkswagen, Barclays
Retiring from Test and carrying on with the shorter version may have irked the purists, but only time will tell if this affects his earnings.




Sourav Ganguly
Earnings: $3.5 million
Major Sponsors: Puma, Pepsi
Despite a controversial second season with KKR, the former India captain has still managed to rake in the moolah.





Ricky Ponting
Earnings: $3.5 million
Major Sponsors: Valvoline, KFC, Adidas
Is Australia’s most marketable athlete, earning more than $2 mn in commercial endorsements over the last 12 months.





Brett Lee
Earnings: $3 million
Major Sponsors: Gatorade, Volkswagen
Despite not being fit throughout the year and missing most of the IPL season 2, Lee has still managed to keep his place in the top-10.




Kevin Pietersen
Earnings: $3 million
Major Sponsors: Red Bull, Vodafone, Adidas
Purchased for a record $1.55 mn by Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Englishman has increased his income.




Michael Clarke
Earnings: $2.5 million
Major Sponsors: Gillette, Slazenger
Clarke is the one of the high-profile cricketers who is yet to join the IPL and the only non-IPL player to feature in this list.

Champions League Twenty20 preliminary squads

1.) Trinidad and Tobago: Daren Ganga, Sherwin Ganga, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Amit Jaggernauth, Lendi Simmons, Dave Mohammad, K Pollard, William Perkins, Richard Kelly, Samual Badree, RAyad Emrit, Kevon Copper, Navin Stewart, Daron cruickshank, Sunil Narine, Adrian Barath, Imran Khan.


2.) Victorian Bushrangers: cameron white, Bradely Hodge, Peter Siddle, David Hussey, Andrew McDonald, Jan Holland, Clinton McKay, James Pattison, Darren Pattison, Robert Quiney, Mathew Wade, Aiden Blizzard, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Michael Hill, Damien Wright, Bryce McGain, William Sheridan.


3.) Delhi Daredevils: AB DeVilliers, Tilakratne Dilshan, Gautam Gambhir, Dirk Nannes, Dinesh Kaarthik, Daniel Vettory, Glenm McGrath, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Virendra Sehwag, Manoj Tiwari, Paul CollingwoodOwais Shah, Pradeep Sagwan, Aavishkar Salvi, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Rajat Bhatia, VijayKumar YoMahesh, Mithun Manhas.


4.) NSW Blues: Philip Hughes, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke, Stuart Clark, Peter Forrest, Moises henriques, Nathan Hauritz, Brad Haddin, Doug Bollinger, Aaron Bird, Mark Cameron, Stephen O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steve Smith, Daniel Smith, Domonic Thornely, David Warner.


5.) Otago Volts: Craig Cumming, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Aaron Redmond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Greg Todd, Hamish Rutherford, Darek deBoorder, Nick Baird, Warren McSkimming, Neil Wagener, Matte Harvie, James McMillan, Shaun Haig, William Sommerville, Anthony Bullick, Leighton Morgan, Shaun Eathorne.


6.) Cape Cobras: Graeme Smith, Hershelle Gibbs, J P Duminy, Justin Ontong, Charl Langeveldt, Claude Henderson, Monde Zondeki, Vernon Philender, Henery Davids, Karl Nieuwoudt, Lenert Ven Wyk, Ryan Canning, Rory Kleinveldt, Richard Levi, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Stiaan Van Zyl, Andrew Puttick, Derek Brand, Gurshwin Rabie, Francois Plaatiejs.


7.) Wayamba: Jehan Mubarak, Mahela Jayawardene, Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath, MF Mahroof, Kaushalya Lokuarachchi, Jeeventha Kulathunga, Mahela Udawatta, Thisara Perera, Sameer Soysa, Shalika Karunanayake, Isura Udana, Ishara Amerasinghe, Chanka Welagedera, Michael Vendort,


8.) Sussex Eagels: Mathew Prior, Dwayne Smith, Luke Wright, James Kirtely, Piyush Chawla, Michael Yardy, Ed Joyce, Ragheb Aga, Joe Getting, Robin MartinJenkins, Christopher Liddle, William Beer, Andrew Hodd, Carl Hoppkins, Oliver Rayner, Christopher Nash, Ben Brown, Rory HamiltonBrown, Yasir Arafat, Chad Keegan.


9.) Diamond Eagels: Boeta Dippenaar, Dillion du Preez, Morne Van Wyk, Mthandeki Tshabalala, Adrian McLaren, Ryan McLaren, Victor Mpitsang, Abraham Pienaar, Charl Petersen, Ryan Bailey, Wendell Bossenger, Jandre Coetzee, Con De Lenge, Cornelis De Villiers, Dean Elgar, Reeza Hendricks, Alan Krugar, Rilee Rossouw, Aubrey Swanepoel, Shadely Van Schalkwyk.


10) Somerset: Justin Langer, Marcus Trescorthick, Zander de Bruyn, Omari Banks, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Pete Trego, Arul Suppiah, Alfonso Thomos, Max Waller, Charl willoughby, Wes Durston, Mark Turner, Steffen Jones, Jos Buttler, Michael Munday, Adam Dibble, David Stiff, Robin Lett, Ben Philiphs.


11.) RC Banglore: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, Jesse Ryder, Roelof Van Der Merwe, Mark Boucher, Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Shreevats Goswami, Pankaj Singh, Akhil Balachandra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Saurabh Bandekar, Abhimanyu Mithun, K P Appanna.


12.) Deccan Chargers: Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds, Fidel Edwards, Chamara Silva, Scott Styris, Chaminda Vass, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, Pragyan Ojha, Y VenuGopal Rao, T Suman, DB Ravi Teja, Arjun Yadav, Abhinav Kumar, Azhar Bilakhia, Harmeet Singh, SM Shoiab, P Vijay Kumar.

Salman Khan interested in buying IPL team

Bollywood star Salman Khan wants to own a cricket team. The actor has met IPL chairman Lalit Modi in Mumbai to understand the bidding process. Two new IPL teams are to be introduced in 2011. Early reports say Khan is interested in bidding for the Nagpur or Kochi team. "He was interested to know what it takes to own a team, what's the process, when it will be initiated and what's the timeline for it. I think he is a serious buyer," Modi said. Last year, the average bid was 150 million dollars per team, so Salman will need a serious amount of cash.

Dhoni, Yuvraj lead ICC ODI batsmen ranking

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to top the One-day batsmen chart with his deputy Yuvraj Singh occupying the second position in the latest latest ICC ODI Player Rankings released on Wednesday. Apart from Dhoni and Yuvraj, Delhi dasher Virender Sehwag, at the seventh spot, is the other Indian to feature in the top 10 batsmen list. Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir are at the 14th and 17th spot respectively in the chart. However, no Indian features among top 10 ODI bowlers with left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan languishing at the 17th spot in the list which is being headed by Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara, followed by Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori of New Zealand. Meanwhile, Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan continued to top the ODI all-rounders table, followed by England's Andrew Flintoff in the second spot and Kiwi Jacob Oram at the third position. India also managed to hold on to their second best ODI team status with 126 rating points. South Africa tops the table with a point lead over India, while World Champions Australia is lying third with 119 points.

Kolkata girl attempts to kiss Irfan Pathan

Team India's all-rounder Irfan Pathan may have failed to attract national selectors' attention for the forthcoming tri-series and Champions Trophy but his off the field popularity is on high. Irfan Pathan underwent an embarrassing situation when his one woman fan attempted to kiss him in full public view. Shabina Khatoon, a die hard fan of Irfan Pathan, tried to kiss him during a programme organised by Tata Photan+ (a high speed broadband service). Irfan Pathan along with his elder brother Yusuf Pathan was distributing the prize to winner of the event. When Shabina Khatoon went to receive the award from Irfan, she suddenly hugged the Pathan, which provided ample of times to video cameras and still cameras to capture the moment. However, Irfan pushed her away, saying don't do this here. Yusuf, who was busy in signing autographs, was giving mischievous smile over the incident. When asked why she did so, an elated Shabina said, "Why should not?, I am a die hard fan of Irfan and I couldn't control my emotions after seeing him so close." When asked what Irfan's reaction was, she said, "Irfan said don't do this here. Shivangi will kill me." Shivangi is the girlfriend of Indian pacer and duo will tie nuptial knot soon. Irfan Pathan is also the brand ambassador of Tata Indicom. The incident was not new for the cricket stars. Previously, Indian skipper Dhoni was also kissed by a girl.

Selectors have done a good thing by picking Dravid: Ganguly

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly today said the selectors have done the right thing by bringing back Rahul Dravid in the one-day side as the veteran batsman is an asset for the team.

"Selectors have done the right thing by getting back (Ashish) Nehra in the earlier series and now (Rahul) Dravid. That's the way to go," Ganguly said.

Dravid, a former India captain who last played an ODI two years back in October 2007, was included in the 15-member squad along with Sachin Tendulkar, who was rested for the West Indies one-dayers.

"It's a good thing for (Rahul) Dravid. Hopefully, if he can play well, he will be an asset to the Indian side. This is the right way," the 37-year-old told reporters at Eden Gardens where the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had organised a condolence meeting for former Sports minister Subhas Chakraborty who died on August 3.

As many as four changes were made to the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side for the upcoming Tri-series and ICC Champions Trophy next month, with Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja getting the boot following failures in the four-match series in the West Indies, which India won 2-1.

S Badrinath, Murali Vijay and Pragyan Ojha were also shown the door.

The ace left-hander said the Indian team never had senior-junior divide.

"There is nothing like junior and seniors. Whoever performs well should play well and moreover, he is just 36. It's all about performances. But I don't think senior-junior is ever an issue and should never be an issue," said Ganguly.

Asked whether he regretted his retirement, he said, "I have decided not to play anymore. I've retired some nine months ago and it's all past now."

On promising Bengal wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, who was named in the 30-strong list of probables for the Champions Trophy, Ganguly said: "It's unfortunate and he has to wait for his turn. (Wicketkeeper-batsman) Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the captain of the side and (Dinesh) Kaarthick is doing well at the moment."

Asked about Shah Rukh Khan's grilling at the Newark airport in New Jersey, Ganguly said, "It's a very delicate issue but he is fine at the moment so that's more important. I don't know much about the incident so can't comment much."

Sehwag likely to sit out for tri-series, Champions Trophy

Virender Sehwag's injured right shoulder will be the main topic of discussion as the selectors prepare to pick 15-member squad for Champions Trophy and the preceding tri-series in Sri Lanka. Sehwag might not be fit to bat before September 17 and despite the temptation to include a proven match-winner, it does seem likely that Krishnamachari Srikkanth and company will keep Viru out of the squad. The selectors, it is understood, want the same squad for both the Sri Lanka tri-series and the Champions Trophy to ensure that the players, who have been out of cricket for two months now, get back into the groove before the premier tournament in South Africa. The Lanka series and the Corporate Cup in India before that are perfect launch pads for the Champions Trophy and Sehwag won't be able to play in any of these tournaments.