The votes have now been casted by the independent 25-person academy and these four men are the ones in the running to receive the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year at a glittering ceremony in London on 12 September 2011.

In addition, Trott and Cook are also short-listed for the ICC Test Player of the Year alongside England team-mate James Anderson and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis at the eighth annual LG ICC Awards, presented in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).

Amla is also in contention for the ICC ODI Player of the Year award and he is short-listed in that category alongside Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Australia’s Shane Watson and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 winner Gautam Gambhir of India.

The Twenty20 International (T20I) Performance of the Year sees New Zealand’s Tim Southee short-listed alongside England’s Tim Bresnan, Australia’s Shane Watson and South Africa’s JP Duminy.

This year’s LG ICC Awards includes 10 individual prizes, including the LG People’s Choice Award and also features a newly designed Spirit of Cricket Award which honours a moment by an international player that has most adhered to the Spirit of Cricket. This award is nominated and voted for by the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.

The long-lists were made by a five-man ICC selection panel chaired by former West Indies captain and current chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee Clive Lloyd. The panel also includes former captains Zaheer Abbas of Pakistan and England’s Mike Gatting and New Zealand’s Danny Morrison and South Africa’s Paul Adams.

The short-lists were created after the individual player awards were voted for by an academy of 25 highly credentialed cricket personalities from around the world. The academy includes a host of former players, respected members of the media as well as representatives of the Emirates Elite Panels of ICC Umpires and ICC Match Referees.

The nominations from the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year were decided after a committee of former players, current administrators and journalists created a long-list. This in turn was broken down into a short-list by a separate 25-person voting academy.

This year’s short-list for the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year sees last year’s winner, Australia’s Shelley Nitschke, on the list again, alongside West Indies’ Stafanie Taylor and England duo of Lydia Greenway and Charlotte Edwards.

The David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year award was voted on by the 10 current Test captains and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and is partly based on the umpires’ performance statistics.

The award for the umpire of the year was fittingly named the David Shepherd Trophy last year. The late David Shepherd embodied everything that is good in cricket. In the often serious world of match officiating he brought to it a sparkle, a delight and a humanity that was both engaging and uplifting. He generated respect and warmth from those he met with his humour, humility, empathy, excellent decision-making and professionalism. His umpiring was of the highest quality and the fact he stood in 92 Tests, 172 ODIs and officiated in three ICC Cricket World Cup finals is a testimony to his ability, dedication and sheer enjoyment of umpiring.

This year’s nominees are 2009 and 2010 ICC Umpire of the Year Aleem Dar and five-time ICC Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, along with Austalia’s Steve Davis and Ian Gould of England. All four short-listed candidates, coincidentally, were part of the Playing Control Team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final in Mumbai on 2 April 2011.

The ICC Emerging Player of the Year nominees short-list features two players from the West Indies – Devendra Bishoo and Darren Bravo – and two from Pakistan, Wahab Riaz and Azhar Ali.

The ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year award serves to recognise and reward the efforts in all international matches of the outstanding cricketers from the teams outside the ICC Full Members.

This year’s short-list sees the return of 2008 and 2010 winner, Ryan ten Doeschate of the Netherlands, who is joined by Ireland pair of Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien while Hamid Hassan of Afghanistan rounds off the shortlist for that category.

Based on the period between 11 August 2010 and 3 August 2011, the LG ICC Awards 2011 – presented in association with FICA – take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

That period includes such high-profile events as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the ICC Intercontinental Cup final, several ICC World Cricket Leagues as well as several bilateral Test and ODI series.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its eighth year and this year it will be held in London, England. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009), Dubai (2008) and Bengaluru (2010).

Short-lists of nominees (in alphabetical order) -

Individual Awards

Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year:

Hashim Amla (SA), Alastair Cook (Eng), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Jonathan Trott (Eng)

ICC Test Player of the Year:

James Anderson (Eng), Alastair Cook (Eng), Jacques Kallis (SA), Jonathan Trott (Eng)

ICC ODI Player of the Year:

Hashim Amla (SA), Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Kumar Sangakkara (SL), Shane Watson (Aus)

ICC Emerging Player of the Year:

Azhar Ali (Pak), Devendra Bishoo (WI), Darren Bravo (WI), Wahab Riaz (Pak)

ICC Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year:

Ryan ten Doeschate (Ned), Hamid Hassan (Afg), Kevin O’Brien (Ire), Paul Stirling (Ire)

ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year:

Tim Bresnan (Eng) – 3-10-3-4 v Pakistan, Cardiff, 7 September 2010; JP Duminy (SA) – 96 not out (54b, 10×4, 4×6) v Zimbabwe, Kimberley, 10 October 2010; Tim Southee (NZ) – 4-1-18-5 v Pakistan, Auckland, 26 December 2010; Shane Watson (Aus) – 59 (31b, 6×4, 3×6) v England, Adelaide, 12 January 2011

ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year:

Charlotte Edwards (Eng), Lydia Greenway (Eng), Shelley Nitschke (Aus), Stafanie Taylor (WI)

David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire of the Year:

Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Ian Gould, Simon Taufel

ICC Spirit of Cricket:

MS Dhoni (Ind) – for his recall of Ian Bell during the second Test match between England and India at Trent Bridge, July/August 2011, Jacques Kallis (SA) – for twice during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 walking after clarifying with the opposition fielder if they had caught the ball cleanly

Occupants of the top slot since December 2009, India added the 50-over World Cup in April this year to signal their intention of dominating the game like the West Indies and Australia had done so in the recent past.

However, England’s utter dominance in a quartet of lopsided test victories proved that India’s fortress was built on flimsy foundations.

India’s much-vaunted batting line-up failed to fire, their bowlers bled runs without success and the standard of their fielding would have embarrassed any club side.

“Indian cricket has become the laughing stock of the world game and while that might not seem to matter to a board that generates 70 percent of the sport’s global income and has in its locker-room the World Cup trophy, no less, ridicule tends to be a corrosive disease,” ESPN Cricinfo’s Andrew Miller wrote.

Many believe the seeds of destruction were sown by the Indian cricket board, which compiled a lucrative but punishing schedule that ensured most of the players were either exhausted or injured by the time they set foot on English soil.

India’s World Cup victory in April was preceded by a South Africa tour and less than a week after lifting one-day cricket’s biggest trophy in Mumbai, skipper MS Dhoni and his men were honouring their Indian Premier League (IPL) obligations in the cash-rich Twenty20 league.

A short tour of the West Indies followed before they arrived in England just in time for a practice game ahead of the four-match series against a battle-hardened and hungry England side.

Ajit Wadekar, who led India to their first series victory in England 40 years ago, insists the players should have skipped the IPL tournament.

“Tell me which English player participated in the IPL? None of them,” Wadekar told Reuters.

“We could not even enjoy our World Cup win properly. The IPL started immediately. It was too much and it’s telling on the players.”

Wadekar’s point was driven home by the dismal experiences of three key players before and during the England series.

Openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan either picked up or aggravated existing injuries during the 51-day IPL tournament and subsequently skipped the trip to the Caribbean.

On top of that, a fresh injury to Gambhir compounded India’s crisis and the tourists were only once able to start a test with their regular opening partnership, tinkering with the batting order in the other three matches.

Sehwag was unavailable for the first two matches as he recovered from shoulder surgery and after being rushed into action for the third test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, was dismissed for first-ball ducks in both innings.

Zaheer lasted just one test, bowling 13 1/2 overs in the first innings of the opening match at Lord’s, before a hamstring injury ended his tour.

India’s lack of planning, the hallmark of any team that wants to dominate the game, was also cruelly exposed.

Devoid of a reserve opener in the squad, Rahul Dravid, India’s only batsman to offer resistance, was promoted to the top of the order to face England’s fired-up seamers with the new ball.

Selectors also sprang a surprise when they called up left-arm seamer RP Singh as Zaheer’s replacement, despite not playing a test match since April 2008.

They also recalled Dravid for the subsequent limited-overs series after an absence of two years in another decision that smacked of poor planning and desperation.

RETIREMENTS DUE

As Dhoni pointed out after losing his first series as captain, cracks had appeared throughout India’s much-vaunted batting line-up.

While the team urgently needs to identify and groom a third opener, the lower-middle order position vacated by former captain Sourav Ganguly when he retired in 2008 has also proved difficult to fill.

Yuvraj Singh, who brings immense value in the shorter formats, has not been able to cement his place in the test side and Suresh Raina’s inadequate technique does not make him an automatic choice either.

Adding to that dilemma, batting stalwarts Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Vangipurappu Laxman are all on the wrong side of their thirties and phasing them out will be the biggest challenge for India, where cricket towers over all other sports.

“That’s a phase I think every country has to cope with. It’s like a cycle,” Wadekar said, referring to the crisis Australia faced after the retirement of players like Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

“Here, nobody bothers about it and there is no planning at all. We have to plan our future properly. This is where we should do a little bit of rotation and get more youngsters.”

Former wicketkeeper and chairman of selectors Kiran More echoed those views.

“Test cricket is the biggest concern area. Test cricket makes a huge difference for the young and fringe players. I think we haven’t developed one test player in the last few years,” More told Reuters.

“You have to promote young players, give them opportunities and carry them on the tours. That’s how you develop a player.

“You have to carry AN extra couple of fast bowlers on the tour. Pakistan during Imran Khan’s time used to carry 17-18 players on the tour.

“Imran used to carry extra fast bowlers who could bowl in the nets and gain the experience of the conditions. That has not happened… there have been so many changes. It is not helping the players and they are not gaining any confidence.”

courtyesy:-http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.reuters.com/analysis-myopic-india-architects-their-own-downfall-20110824/

While addressing a news conference in London, Dhoni made it clear that it is too early to blame the players’ involvement in the IPL for their poor show in the recent test series against England.

England completed a series whitewash over India when they won the fourth test by an innings and eight runs on the last day of the four test match series between the two teams at the Oval cricket ground in London.

India, following on in their second innings, collapsed to 283 all out in the second session after Sachin Tendulkar was dismissed on 91 by Tim Bresnan with just nine runs short of his much anticipated 100th international century.

Tendulkar added 144 for the fourth wicket with Amit Mishra, who added 84 runs to the Indian score board before being bowled by Graeme Swann. Quick seven wickets fell for 21 runs, crippling India.

There has been a call to empower players to make their own choices for the tournaments they would like to play in.

“Well let’s see and hope for the best over who gets empowered and who gets the power. So hopefully we won’t miss players if you all feel it’s all because of the IPL. Let’s see and hope for the best,” said Dhoni.

Commenting on the issue of IPL, England cricket team captain Andrew Strauss stated that the non-involvement of England players in IPL may have helped them performing well.

“You can never hold anything against a player for what he is playing in the IPL, for financial reasons or for improving their game or whatever. But in some ways we have been less affected by the other side. And this is purely looking from the England team’s perspective. There have been some benefits for us being less involved. But as I said, you can understand individual players who wanted to be involved in that tournament,” he said.

England took over from India as the world’s top-ranked nation when they won the third test at Edgbaston. India now ranks third in international test cricket. Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)

Courtesy:-http://cricket.yahoo.com/cricket/news/article?id=item/2.0/-/story/cricket.ani.com/dhoni-not-sure-if-ipl-fatigue-affected-players-performance-during-england-tour-20110823/