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Stars to light up Awards night |
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9/10/2008 10:16:16 AM |
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Leading cricketers will light up the LG ICC Awards night here at The Westin Hotel today.
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, South African skipper Graeme Smith and his team-mate Dale Steyn and West Indian left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul are in the running for the top prize the Cricketer of the year 2008 award.
Jayawardene, Steyn and Chanderpaul are also in the reckoning for Test cricket of they year prize.
ICC’s annual awards, which started in 2004, were to be held this year in Pakistan during the Champions Trophy. However, the event was cancelled due to security reasons after major teams threatened to boycott the tournament.
“It is of course unfortunate in the circumstances that we had to change venue because we were all looking forward to a great ICC Awards night in Pakistan,” said ICC President David Morgan.
“But Dubai is a major player in the world of international cricket these days and it is good to be able to bring such a prestigious event to the home of the ICC,” he said.
“In fact, Dubai is, in many ways, the perfect venue for the ICC Awards. The city is centrally located for the global game and it is set to become a major cricketing hub in its own right. The ICC Global Cricket Academy is set to open early next year, as is the brand-new 25,000-seater cricket stadium at Dubai Sports City.”
This year’s LG ICC Awards includes eight individual prizes, including a new one for the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.
It also features the selection of the Test and ODI Teams of the Year and the award to the side that has adhered most to the Spirit of Cricket.
The nominations for seven of the awards were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by West Indies legend Clive Lloyd. The panel also includes former Australia captain Greg Chappell, recently retired South Africa all-rounder Shaun Pollock, former Sri Lanka opener Sidath Wettimuny and former Bangladesh batsman Athar Ali Khan. This panel will also select the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year.
The winners of these seven individual awards will be voted upon by a 25-person panel from around the world, made up of renowned former players, respected members of the media, and an elite umpire and elite match referee.
Based on the 12 months between August 9, 2007 and August 12, 2008, the LG ICC Awards 2008 — presented in association with FICA — will take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game. That period includes the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 2007 in South Africa.
The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its fifth year and this will be the first time it has been staged in Dubai. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006) and Johannesburg (2007).
“The LG ICC Awards are an opportunity to pay homage to the remarkable performances of the world’s top players,” said Morgan.
“It is also a chance for lovers of the sport around the globe to reflect on some of the great cricketing feats they have witnessed over the previous 12 months. This will be the fifth time the awards have been handed out and yet again there are so many great performances to recall. I don’t envy the job facing the selectors and voting academy,” he said.
Meanwhile, former England captain Nasser Hussain will host the LG ICC Awards at a glittering ceremony.
Hussain, an experienced and high-respected broadcaster with BSkyB in the United Kingdom since his retirement as a player in 2004, led his country in 45 of his 96 Tests and 56 of his 88 ODIs in an international career spanning 15 years.
ESPN STAR Sports’ Alan Wilkins will work with Hussain during the evening as a reporter and interviewer, capturing the flavour of cricket’s night of nights when the world’s leading performers are recognised and honoured.
The LG ICC Awards is now in its fifth year but this is the first time the ceremony has taken place in the United Arab Emirates, the home of the ICC. The event will be broadcast all over the world, touching approximately 100 countries and territories.
The coverage, produced by the ICC’s broadcast and production partner ESPN STAR Sports, will be shown by the following broadcasters:
Players who have secured the game’s top individual honour in the past are Rahul Dravid of India (2004), England’s Andrew Flintoff and Jacques Kallis of South Africa (joint winners in 2005) and Australia captain Ricky Ponting (back-to-back winner in 2006 and 2007).
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Source: Thepeninsulaqatar.com |
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