Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj nominated for ICC awards

Captain Rahul Dravid and left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh are the two Indians left in the fray after shortlisting of players for the ICC's annual awards, to be announced on November 3. Rahul Dravid, winner of Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year awards in 2004, is in the running for the Captain of the Year honour while Yuvraj, scorer of 1,496 runs in the period under consideration for the awards, is in contention for the ODI Player of the Year award.

While Rahul Dravid, who was in the long list of nominees for Test and ODI Cricketer of the Year as well as Cricketer of the Year awards, compatriot Irfan Pathan was in the first list for ODI player of the Year along with Yuvraj.

Rahul Dravid has been omitted for other three awards while Pathan has been ignored for the ODI Player of the Year.

However, India is in the fray for the Spirit of Cricket award while Anjum Chopra is vying for honours in Woman Cricketer of the Year category.

Young Pakistan pace bowler Mohammad Asif, who recently tested positive for a banned drug, was one of the four players named for ICC's Emerging Player of the Year award.

Asif and fellow-pacer Shoaib Akhtar had tested positive for performance-enhancing drug nandrolone and were pulled out of Pakistan squad participating in the ongoing Champions Trophy.

The drug-tainted bowlers face a ban upto two years under the World Anti-Doping Code, to which the ICC and its members are signatories.

The ICC's shortlist of players and teams for eight categories of awards, including one for women, was announced at a press conference in Mumbai by its Chief Executive Malcolm Speed.

Speed clarified that Asif earned the nomination as he had not tested positive for any banned substance during the period taken into consideration -- Aug 1, 2005 to Aug 8, 2006.

"Asif is eligible for the award as the period under consideration for the awards was before the doping offence. The Pakistan Cricket Board has already conducted a hearing and we have been informed that a decision will be taken on the charges by October 26," Speed said.

Asif's challengers for the award are England batsmen Alistair Cook, Ian Bell and left-arm spinner Monty Panesar. The final winners of the various categories of awards would be declared at a function in Mumbai on November 3. Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, controversially left out from the preliminary list, once again found himself out of the running though there was a provision for the 56-strong bigger panel to add names to the original list in various categories, according to Speed.

The ICC CEO said two more categories of awards, to add to the eight for which players and teams' have already been shortlisted, the Test team of the Year and the ODI Team of the Year, would be declared at the awards function. Among those in the running for multiple honours is Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, for four awards -- Cricketer of the Year, Test and ODI Player of the Year and Captain of the Year.

Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf has remained in the hunt for two categories -- Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year -- as also ace Sri Lanka off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan. Australian batsman Michael Hussey remained the fourth player in the running for the Cricketer of the Year award.

The short-listed players and teams are:

Cricketer of the Year: Michael Hussey (Aus), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting (Aus) and Mohd Yousuf (Pak).

Test Player of the Year: Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne (Aus) and Mohd Yousuf.

ODI Player of the Year: Michael Hussey, Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Ricky Ponting and Yuvraj Singh (Ind).

Emerging Player of the Year: Alistair Cook, Ian Bell, Monty Panesar (all Eng) and Mohd Asif (Pak).

Captain of the Year: Rahul Dravid (Ind), Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan (Eng) and Mahela Jayawardene.

Woman Player of the Year: Karen Rolton (Aus), Anjum Chopra (Ind) and Katherne Brunt (Eng).

Spirit of Cricket: India, England, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pak), Rudi Koertzen (SA) and Simon Taufel (Aus).