Sri Lanka win Spirit of Cricket Award

For the way Sri Lanka play the game, they won the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ Award today, at the annual ICC Awards ceremony held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sri Lanka beat stiff competition from its counter parts New Zealand and Ireland, to grab its first-such medal in the ICC Award history.

In other categories, Captain, Mahela Jayawardene was shortlisted for the Captain of the Year Award together with Ricky Ponting. Muttiah Muralitharan was included in the shortlist for the ‘Test Player of the Year Award.’

ICC Awards, which was particularly Australian dominated, includes Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas and Kumar Sangakkara in the World Test and ODI teams respectively.

ICC Test Team of the Year Matthew Hayden, Michael Vaughan, Ricky Ponting (capt), Mohammad Yousuf, Kevin Pietersen, Michael Hussey, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Stuart Clark, Makhaya Ntini, Mohammad Asif, Muttiah Muralitharan. 12th man: Zaheer Khan.

ICC ODI Team of the Year Matthew Hayden, Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting (capt), Kevin Pietersen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher (wk), Chaminda Vaas, Shane Bond, Muttiah Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath. 12th man: Michael Hussey

Jayawardene received the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ Award from former South African batsman Jhonty Rhodes.

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Jayawardene and Ponting head ICC Award Nominations

Among the nominees for ICC Awards this year, Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene and Australian Captain Ricky Ponting head the list.

Jayawardene, who won the ICC Captain of the Year Award last year, has been nominated for the award for a second consecutive year, together with Ponting.

The other individual categories that the two are nominated include : Test Cricketer of the Year, ODI Cricketer of the Year and Cricketer of the Year.

Both, Jayawardene’s and Ponting’s teams reached the World Cup Final this April.

Apart from Jayawardene, Sri Lankan Vice Captain Kumar Sangakkara have been nominated for Test Cricketer, and Cricketer of the Year Awards and ace-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for Test Cricketer, ODI Cricketer and Cricketer of the Year Awards.

The nominations were made by a five-man ICC selection panel led by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar and also including Chris Cairns, the former New Zealand all-rounder, ex-South Africa batsman Gary Kirsten, Iqbal Qasim, the former Pakistan left-arm spinner, and ex-England captain Alec Stewart.

The winners will be voted upon by a 56-person panel made up of the 10 ICC Full Member captains, the 10 Emirates Elite umpires and eight Emirates Elite match referees and 28 former greats of the game and members of the media.

ICC will be announcing a shortlist on September 04th, and the ICC Awards Ceremony 2007 will take place at Johannesburg, South Africa on September 10th.

Nominees – 2007

Test Player
Mohammad Asif (Pak), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Stuart Clark (Aus), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Zaheer Khan (Ind), Anil Kumble (Ind), Brian Lara (WI), Glenn McGrath (Aus), Muttiah Muralidaran (SL), Makhaya Ntini (SA), Monty Panesar (Eng), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Shaun Pollock (SA), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Kumar Sangakkara (SL) Ryan Sidebottom (Eng), Shane Warne (Aus), Mohammad Yousuf (Pak)

ODI Player
Shane Bond (NZ), Mark Boucher (SA) Nathan Bracken (Aus), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Stuart Clark (Aus), Michael Clarke (Aus), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Jacques Kallis (SA), Brett Lee (Aus), Glenn McGrath (Aus), Muttiah Muralidaran (SL), Jacob Oram (NZ), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Shaun Pollock (SA), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)

Emerging Player
Ravinder Bopara (Eng), Shakib Al Hasan (Bang), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Mushfiqur Rahim (Bang), Shaun Tait (Aus), Ross Taylor (NZ), Chris Tremlett (Eng)

Cricketer of the Year
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI), Matthew Hayden (Aus), Michael Hussey (Aus), Mahela Jayawardena (SL), Jacques Kallis (SA), Glenn McGrath (Aus), Muttiah Muralidaran (SL), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Shaun Pollock (SA), Ricky Ponting (Aus), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Mohammed Yousuf (Pak)

Captain of the Year
Mahela Jayawardene (SL), Ricky Ponting (Aus)

Associate ODI Player of the Year
Ashish Bagai (Can), Andre Botha (Ire), John Davison (Can), Trent Johnston (Ire), Dwayne Leverock (Ber), Kyle McCallan (Ire), Tanmay Mishra (Ken), Eoin Morgan (Ire), Ashif Mulla (Can), Niall O’Brien (Ire), Thomas Odoyo (Ken), Peter Ongondo (Ken), Irving Romaine (Ber), Abdool Samad (Can), Ryan Ten Doeschate (Neth), Steve Tikolo (Ken), Hiren Varaiya (Ken), Ryan Watson (Sco)

Umpire of the Year
Mark Benson, Steve Bucknor, Daryl Harper, Simon Taufel

Women’s Cricketer of the Year
Caitriona Beggs (Ire), Holly Colvin (Eng), Rumeli Dhar (Ind), Maria Fahey (NZ), Jhulan Goswami (Ind), Ashlyn Kilowan (SA), Johmari Logtenberg (SA), Urooj Mumtaz Khan (Pak), Shelley Nitschke (Aus), Rebecca Rolls (NZ), Sajida Shah (Pak), Lisa Sthalekar (Aus), Claire Taylor (Eng)

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Sri Lanka Cricket hits back at Bishan Singh Bedi

Media manager hints at possible legal action against the former Indian skipper for his outburst

Sri Lanka Cricket officials yesterday hit back former Indian test captain Bishan Singh Bedi over his alleged comment that Sri Lanka’s champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan is a “monster” setting wrong precedent to youngsters.

Sri Lanka Cricket’s media manager Samantha Algama said that they are “greatly disappointed and concerned” by the statements made by Bedi and added that Sri Lanka Cricket sincerely believes that appropriate action should be taken by the authorities to prevent such incidents from recurring.

Hinting at possible legal action by the spinner, Algama said “Sri Lanka Cricket will support any and all efforts by Muralitharan to take corrective action in the matter” in a written statement sent to “Daily Mirror”, referring to our lead story yesterday, where Bedi was quoted.“While SLC respects the right of individuals to form their own opinion regarding the matter of illegal bowling actions; we feel that Mr.Bedi’s comments are defamatory and are intended to cause harm to Mr.Muralitharan’s reputation, his achievements and also disparages the ICC’s ruling on the said matter.” Algama added.

Explaining the matter further, Algama stated “Mr.Muralitharan’s bowling action has been scrutinized time and again by bowling experts, bio-mechanical experts and medical experts and has been found to be within the laws of the game. Furthermore, the ICC has also set in place procedures that deal with suspected illegal actions. Mr. Bedi should be aware of these procedures and processes.”

“It is irresponsible for a person of Mr.Bedi’s stature in the game to make such public comments where he has clearly attacked the personal integrity of Mr.Muralitharan and the technical competency of the ICC. Mr.Bedi has needlessly, unfairly and deliberately targeted Mr.Muralitharan in his vituperative outburst.” Algama’s statement added.

Murali will take legal action against Bedi says Manager

Muttiah Muralitharan’s manager Kushil Gunasekara in a statement to “Daily Mirror” yesterday said that the champion spinner will take legal action against Bedi’s comments shortly. Following is Gunasekara’s statement.

I refer to the media publication that appeared in the Daily Mirror of 9th August 2007 pertaining to the repulsive comments made by Mr Bishan Singh Bedi which is of a very serious defamatory nature to bring disrepute and tarnish the impressive image of Mr Muttiah Muralidaran.

It is no surprise that the ugly behaviour and unjustified allegations made by Mr Bishan Singh Bedi depicting more of a personal attack coincides with Murali’s attempt to achieve the highest number of test wickets by any bowler in the history of the game in the not too distant future.

The legal team of Mr Muttiah Muralidaran will shortly institute legal action against Mr Bishan Singh Bedi in view of the sordid and ghastly manner in which he has condemned by way of a severe character assassination to undermine Mr Muttiah Muralidaran’s magical art of spin bowling.

Courtesy : Daily Mirror

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Mahela Jayawardene and Tom Moody on ICC’s Cricket Committee

Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene and their former coach Tom Moody were named on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) newly constituted cricket committee on Tuesday.“The new structure is designed to be representative of all interests in the modern game,” an ICC statement said. The previous structure was made up of nominated representatives from each of the full members (boards and players) and leading associates.

Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, former Australia captain Mark Taylor and ex-West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding are also part of the 13-member committee, which will be headed by former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar.

“The game of cricket now has at its disposal a group of outstanding cricket brains covering all aspects of the game and with their collective input we will be able to ensure that, moving forward, a strong sport is able to grow even stronger,” ICC chief executive officer Malcolm Speed said in a statement.

Courtesy : Daily News

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