Saeed Ajmal’s exclusion from the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) shortlist of players for the Cricketer of the Year awards has drawn great ire from Pakistan, be it administrators, former cricketers or the passionate cricket fans.
ICC has ruled out a chance for Ajmal’s late inclusion in the list, saying it does not have any authority over the final list, which is decided by an independent jury, who decided to leave out Ajmal. In return, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has indicated that it may boycott the awards all together to show its displeasure with the decision.
Much has been written and debated about Ajmal’s stand-out performance during the period considered by the ICC for award nominations. Here’s what Dawn.com contributor Shoaib Naveed said in his blog last week: “Ajmal is the highest wicket taker in Test matches during the time frame (August 5, 2011 to August 4, 2012) which the ICC considered while making its picks. And by some distance, which should alone be enough to warrant him a slot in the Test Player’s short-list, as is the case is with his counterpart, Lasith Malinga, in One Day Internationals (ODIs). The Sri Lankan pacer finds himself in the ODI list just because of the number of wickets he has taken (read matches taken part in) in the format. His average of 28, and an economy of 5.4 is nothing astounding, and dwarfs in comparison to Ajmal’s (third on the list) average of 22, and economy of 4.1.”
Pakistani cricket fans have been holding protests and taking to social media forums to criticize the ICC decision. It remains to be seen whether the PCB’s decision makers will actually boycott the ceremony and what, if any, result it will bear.
Should the PCB go ahead and boycott the awards and register a strong protest to the ICC’s decision?
Can you think of a logical, facts-based reason which could be behind this decision?
Will this bring a change to the way nominations and short-lists are made for such awards?
Should the ICC make the decision-making process more transparent?
Dawn.com invites its readers to share their views and suggestions…
pakistanis are emotional and ignorant people.saeed ajmal is a good bowler, his figures speak for him. question is what was pakistani delegation comprising of aamir sohail and an unknown character ( probably a favorite of some big wig in pcb) doing at the meeting when the selections were being made.why did they not boycott the meeting and spoke to press about this tardiness,unless they were a part of it and now acting coy.or worse still they were not even in the meeting and enjoying themselves in a local night club. i wouldn’t be surprised one bit. PCB must attend the function,behave like civilized people and all members should wear a black patch which would invite press attention, then you put up all your grievances to the entire world.learn to fight the enemy with his own method.
Yes no doubt Ajmal is the best bowler right now, but I dont understand why Amir Sohail and the other member of the committee from Pakistan did’nt vote for him, were they dumb or something else, its not the matter of their choice, or like or dislike its the matter of performance. These two Pakistani members from Pakistan should be questioned that why did’nt they Vote for Ajmal or protested against his exclusion from the short list.
We have one of the best teams in the world, so forget the politics and reply with the bat and the ball. Be the best above all others and we will never need any boycotts.
The ICC are working on revising the bending of the arm rule for bowlers and are in the final phases of experimenting with on field monitoring. This new development might get Ajmal into trouble potentially, therefore they might be trying to preempt the embarrassment to themselves by first honoring Ajmal and then shortly after declaring his action illegal.
Pakistan must send strong message to ICC saying very clearly and loudly that due to exclusion of our star we are nit attending award ceremony as a protest. Just absenting is not enough.Sly will not split apart if Pakistan absents.
Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait / zaidiformerdiplomat@hotmail.com
i will totally propose that agony over the non-inclusion from ICC final list of player of the year cricketer award is undeniable. however, we should not ignore that our concern as expectators should be moan over the exclusion of ajmal, instead emphasis must project the importance of presence in ICC awards.
we have overrode the fact that our performances are also scaled over certain measures which we have either intentionally or automatically laid under the obscurity. we must cricitally alter the way we weigh our performance being player of year. sadly sigh, pakistani team has lost the position of legendary sportsman spirit. we must atleast understand the practically required for being good cricketer in todays world.
What are you all complaining about when your own people like Amir Sohail and Majid Bhatti who were in the nomination team selected Kumar Sangrakara over Ajmal. Before pointing fingers on others like ICC ….everyone of you should look at your self first. These ex senior players are selfish and would’nt want a fellow pakistani to obtain anything that they were not able to obtain. Unless we kick these senior , ex crciket players from representing Pakistan ..for greed and politics things are never changing. .. Fix your self first before fixing others…..
ICC is the worst sporting event body should learn from fifa admin to run sport better way. every now and then changing rules and regulation no criteria for grounds…no proper recogniition of good players but favourtism. these awards will have no value unless ICC don’t come up with some criteria on which they select series and select players from awads. dosent matter who get ands who dosent.
Boycotting will not send a positive message to anyone. PCB needs to create a positive IMAGE in the ICC specialy after the match fixing scandal. Pakistani team is not well liked in international arena due to several reasons of the past. Now, boycotting will be an addition to the bagage. PCB’s official protest was good enough reaction. I think PCB will be more respected if it simply attends the ceremony with ‘ agree to disagree’ attitude.
Yes, Boycott is “the” solution, when world top bowler is not included why should his board attend.
Boycot is not solution what up in the award as far as ajmal giving you happiness of victory that what more important conspiracy or what do not cry keep enjoying his bowling and joy of victory this is best award
I would disagree wid you. PCB is affiliated with ICC. Any decision that ICC makes or implement has direct or indirect effect on it. South Africa did the same when It felt that their players are being marginalised. A a protest pk should show some solid anger. and boycotting is one of the real options.
“What’s up in the award”, if there’s nothing in the award then why attend? Just boycott it. That’s it.
Unfortunately, PCB has no credibility among other boards and ICC due to previous fights/arguments, etc. over various things from past years. If PCB do boycott the award ceremony, it will not have no effect on ICC or other boards.
I believe PCB should attend award ceremony and ask for reasons for exclusions from the committee and not the ICC. Saeed was way better than Philander. On another note, ICC also no credibility.. so who cares about the ICC award.
“Who cares about the icc award”, if no one cares of the ICC award then why attend? Just boycott it. That’s it.
PCB should boycott.Its clearly not fair with this legend. His bowling action is good.It has already been proved.
Unfortunately Pakistan has lost its way in International stage whether its politics or sport, our efforts or virtues go unnotice in the international scene, we as a nation had to rebuild our reputation and respect among the elite.
But on short term basis, yes we should boycott and convey the message through which ever medium we have that we are not happy!!!!!
PCB should show their credibility by doing possible steps of protest, if India and any other countries do when they feel some kind of violation. Why PCB is feeling himself as minorities/low standard in Cricket council. I like the idea that they should banned and also should held any ceremony to appreciate their players especially Saeed Ajmal (Spell Bowler)
Wow… how can you blame India and BCCI for this. This is hilarious.
Pakistan Should not attend the awards. Its about time we took a strong stance at something. There is no point in attending if we dont agree with the judges.
Pakistan should boycott the ICC Awards Ceremony because there is no point in attending the ceremony where we are not respected and not treated at par like others.
ICC says its an independent jury decision and it can’t be turn around, well, why the opposite happened in case of Graeme Swann in past?
We all know, ICC doesnot care and nothing will happen whether Pakistan attends the ceremony or not, but it will send a strong message around the globe and will boost the confidence level of players that the board is at their back, in good as well as bad times.
Just concentrate on cricket and T20 WC, for that we wish our team “GOOD LUCK”
Grow up,boys ( and girls,too). Who cares if you folks boycott the function ?
More to the point, the function will go on and you will still be boycotted and banned.
Right on, I totally agree with you bro, who care if you boycott??
Perhaps you people of all should not talk, there are no indians in the test team of the year or the test awards.
…whereas India won’t be boycotted or banned if India was to boycott the function. The double-standards at the ICC for India compared to the rest are astonishing.
I’m still amazed by how all matches India plays in are exempt from DRS, just because India isn’t comfortable with it.
Coming back to the original discussion, if the Swann precedent did not exist, I would not be in favour of PCB even lodging a protest. But now that the Swann precedent is there, we have every right to strongly protest the decision, especially when our claim is backed by facts.
Same criteria for all, that’s a fair thing to ask for
The simple answer to your question is BCCI has $$$$$$$$$$$$$, millions of them! that is why India sets the rule!
We do care because we have a great bowler who has earned hin place.
Last time I looked I didn’t see any Indians on Cricketer of the Year shortlist. Maybe, that is why you are so relaxed about it.
But unfortunately, India is better team than Pakistan. Indian cricket has improved a lot than Pakistan cricket and that is what matters.
Yes PCB should boycott the event. Instead PCB should have its award show and appreciate the efforts of Ajmal, Hafeez & Junaid khan etc. and give them some token money.
We don’t need the pathetic ICC! I bet they are the ones who made Butt, Asif and Amir involved in spot fixing so they could ban them and Pakistani cricket can’t progress.
oh yea?? so you think they are innocent ha?? in your court! do not make a fool and laughing stock of yourself.
If the ICC people could not see all the stats and facts while making the list, what kind of outcome should we as a nation expect from ICC? total boycott, not only of the event but all the future scheduled matches under ICC should be the ultimate step. Pakistan as a nation, should give up the humble approach towards events in its life and take what it truly deserves. We have given a lot to this world and its people.
Ghora game, Ghora Rules. Accept it or Leave it. This is Ghora democracy.
Yes, even though the awards function should be boycotted by PCB but this should not afffect our players performace during the upcoming T20 World Cup. Look at history, whenever there is a major series or event, like the WC approaching, either our players are labeled as cheats or chuckers or the ICC and BCCI throws its weight and boycott’s Pakistan out of the event, like the WC 2011. This is done ONLY to mentally distrupt the Pak team before the T20 World Cup.
In the modern era, boycotting is not a solution and certainly not an effective way of registering your complaints and grievances. It only reflects that one does not have solid arguments to back his claims thereby further weakening your stance.
Indeed, exclusion of Saeed Ajmal from the short-list is a debatable point but our reaction too is mainly driven by emotions and not by logic and criteria followed by the panel to reach to the decision. This is where we always make our case weak by reacting emotionally. Boycotting the awards function would only look to be the case of sour grapes.
Pakistan better stay away from such partial and fake award show