ICC Awards 2021: All you need to know
On 28th December, the International Cricket Council (ICC), announced its ICC Awards 2021 nominees. The ICC Awards is an annual event that recognises and celebrates the contributions of cricketers in a calendar year. The year 2021 was a witness to major international cricket tournaments like the ICC World Test Championship and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Apart from these, several significant bilateral series in both men’s and women’s cricket have taken place this year that were not only full of broken records but also controversies. No wonder, ICC Awards 2021 arouses serious interest among cricket lovers all across the world. Here’s all you might need to know about the ICC Awards 2021.
What are the categories?
ICC Awards 2021 will comprise of 13 individual awards and 5 Team of the Year awards for each format in both men’s and women’s cricket. The individual award categories include:
- Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year
- Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Emerging Men’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Emerging Women’s Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Men’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Women’s Associate Cricketer of the Year
- ICC Spirit of Cricket Award
- ICC Umpire of the Year
How is the nomination decided?
ICC’s present CEO Geoff Allardice will head the awards panel comprising of renowned cricket journalists and broadcasters from across the world.
For the first seven categories mentioned above, nominees will be declared between 28th and 31st December. Each of these categories will have four nominees from among the cricketers who have shown optimum potential during the said period and have registered incredible performances throughout the year (1st January 2021 to 31st December 2021).
How will the winners be decided?
A voting academy comprising of eminent cricket broadcasters and journalists who aren’t part of the nomination panel will vote their first, second and third choice for each category. Whoever from the nominee lists gets the highest vote will be conferred the award. From this year onwards, ICC will also consider fan votes submitted through on their official website. Final decision will be made based on the joint results of the voting academy and the fan selection.
How are the Teams of the Year decided?
An online survey will be conducted by the ICC where each member of the voting academy will choose their teams depending on their overall performance (batting, bowling, fielding, consistency, and team spirit will be the deciding factors) in that respective format and then nominate a captain for each format whose team will be awarded the Team of the Year title.
When will the winners list be declared?
The winners for each category will be announced by the end of January 2022. While ICC Teams of the Year winners will be announced on 17th and 18th January, the individual winners for women’s cricket will be declared on 23rd January. Finally, on 24th January, the men’s winners list as well as the Spirit of Cricket and the Umpire of the Year winners will close this prestigious award event.