Team India were entangled in yet another controversy on the England tour when they skipped the prestigious ICC awards on Monday,even with Sachin Tendulkar,MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir shortlisted for individual awards in four categories. Ironically,Dhoni won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award. Earlier in the day,Dhoni was named skipper of the ICC ODI Team of the Year,which also contained Virender Sehwag,Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. Shifting the blame Shivlal Yadav,Team Indias manager,put the blame for the Indians non-appearance on the ICC,saying that the team hadnt been informed about the event in advance. The team was informed about the event only in the afternoon and it wasnt possible to make it to the function at such short notice, said Yadav. According to the official itinerary,the Indian team was scheduled to travel to Cardiff for the fifth ODI,but the trip was put off due to last-minute changes in the travel plan and the team stayed back in London. However,an ICC spokesperson refuted the charges,saying that the Indian team were told about the event two months in advance. Interestingly,ICC president Sharad Pawar was present at the event to give away the awards. Sachin,Gambhir not in ICC XI The ICC ODI Team of the Year surprisingly had no place for Sachin Tendulkar,a man with two World Cup centuries within the stipulated period. Another puzzling omission from that team was Gambhir,who was short-listed for the ODI player of the year award and was also Indias top-scorer in the World Cup final with 97. Meanwhile,the ICC agreed to a new 50-over qualifying league for the 2015 World Cup,which would allow Associate and Affiliate teams to make the cut. The Chief Executives Committee adopted an ICC Development Committee proposal that a new 50-over League be introduced which will serve as the qualifying programme for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, the ICC said in a statement. The top two teams in the eight team 50-over League will qualify automatically for the World Cup and the remainder of the teams will be joined by the teams finishing third and fourth in the World Cricket League Division 2 (the top two teams will compete in the new League) to decide the remaining two qualifiers. The event will take place at a venue and on a date still to be decided, the statement added.
