Dravid, Yuvraj in running for ICC awards
Performances between August 1, 2005 and August 8, 2006 have been taken into consideration for the awards.
Captain Rahul Dravid and left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh are the two Indians left in the fray after short-listing of players for the ICC's annual awards, to be announced on November 3.
Dravid, winner of the 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 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.
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.
Names of the shortlisted players was released on Sunday by ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed at a media conference.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, controversially left out from the prelimiary 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 short-listed, 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.
Performances between August 1, 2005 and August 8, 2006 have been taken into consideration for the awards.
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).
