ICC refuses to add Saeed Ajmal in shortlisted categories

By Ubaid Awan

ISLAMABAD (TheSportsNext) September 5, 2012: The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Wednesday, rejected an appeal by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to add the name of Saeed Ajmal in the shortlisted categories of the ICC Awards 2012.

Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board, Chaudhry Zaka Ashraf, told TheSportsNext.com exclusively, “ICC didn’t agree with us on Saeed Ajmal’s omission from the awards categories’ list telling us the final list was prepared by a body outside the ICC therefore it can’t do anything about it”.

“We are strongly protesting on this and if an outside company or panel has committed a mistake then it must have been rectified”, he added.

Earlier, the ICC rejected the PCB appeal saying it was too late to add Saeed Ajmal’s name in the awards categories.

ICC said that the changes to the shortlist were not possible now and it remained final.

Saeed Ajmal, who had taken 72 wickets from 12 Test matches last year, was in the preliminary list of Cricketer of the Year award category but the body outside the ICC finalized names of Michael Clarke, Kumar Sangakkara, Vernon Philander and Hashim Amla for the award.

An ICC spokesman said, “Saeed Ajmal was in the long list of nominations for three awards and this went to a voting academy. They voted for these players and nominated their top four. This academy is representative of all countries and their votes were audited and verified by independent auditors. In that way, the process is already complete”.

It is important to mention here that former Pakistani captain Aamir Sohail and the country’s prominent sports journalist Abdul Majid Bhatti were part of the 32-member panel which voted for the finalized lists of awards categories.

Interestingly, neither Aamir Sohail nor Abdul Majid Bhtti voted in favor of Saeed Ajmal.