Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) lodged a protest with International Cricket Council (ICC) Monday over the exclusion of off-spinner Saeed Ajmal from the shortlist of an annual award, saying they hope his name will be included after a review.
The 34-year-old’s name did not feature among the four nominees for the coveted ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’ award, despite being Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker in the period under consideration.
PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar said that they have written to the ICC on Ajmal’s omission.
“Yes, we have shown our concerns on Ajmal’s name not shortlisted for Test player of the year award despite his excellent performance in Tests during that stipulated period,” Sarwar told AFP.
“We hope that the ICC will reconsider this and include Ajmal’s name,” he added.
South Africa’s Hashim Amla and Vernon Philander, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Australia’s Michael Clarke all made the list.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) holds the annual awards ceremony to recognise the best players and umpire in international cricket.
The names are chosen by a 30-member jury comprising of former players, officials and journalists. This year’s ceremony will be held in Colombo on September 15.
Ajmal took 72 wickets in the 12 month period, including 24 in Pakistan’s 3-0 rout of then world number one Test team England earlier this year.
Despite his omission from the award shortlist, Ajmal’s name has been included in ICC’s best Test team of the year.
Blog post Written by Nasir Qureshi and You can visit the original article at http://www.thenewstribe.com/