Umar Akmal, Aleem Dar in ICC awards shortlist

 Pakistan batsman Umer Akmal and umpire Aleem Dar have been shortlisted for the International Cricket Council (ICC) awards. Umpire Aleem had also been awarded the best umpire award in the last year’s ceremony. The names of other two representatives from Pakistan, Mohammad Asif for ICC Test Player of the Year and Mohammad Aamer for Emerging Player of the year, have already been excluded from the list following their suspension by the ICC after the spot-fixing allegations. 

According to an ICC press release issued on Monday, Sachin Tendulkar leads the nominations for the seventh ICC awards as the only cricketer to have been short-listed in all the three major categories. India opener Virender Sehwag, South Africa’s middle-order batsman Hashim Amla and England offspinner Graeme Swann are the other names in the marquee Cricketer of the Year shortlist. Amla and Sehwag were also nominated for the Test cricketer of the Year award, along with South Africa seamer Dale Steyn. Two Australians – seamer Ryan Harris and allrounder Shane Watson – and South Africa’s middle-order batsman AB de Villiers completed the shortlist for the ODI award, along with Tendulkar. Tendulkar was in prolific form during the assessment period - August 24 2009 to August 10 2010 – scoring 1064 runs in 10 Tests, and 914 runs in 17 ODIs, including the first double-century in the history of the format