Misbah, Yasir Shah nominated for ICC 'Awards of the Decade'

Yasir is one of the only two Pakistan players nominated across the 10 categories

LAHORE (Dunya News) – Pakistan head coach Misbah-ul-Haq along with star leg-spinner Yasir Shah have been nominated for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Awards of the Decade.

Misbah was nominated for the ICC’s Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade whereas Shah was nominated for the prestigious category of Men’s Test Player of the Decade.

The former captain has been nominated in the Spirit of Cricket category whereas the 34-year-old has been nominated in the Men’s Test Players of the Decade category.

Yasir is one of the only two Pakistan players nominated across the 10 categories, which also award the most impactful players in women s cricket and those belonging to Associate members.

Pakistan s spin spearhead Yasir made his first-class debut in 2002 but had to wait 12 years before being drafted into the Test side after Saeed Ajmal copped a ban for an illegal bowling action.

Yasir s unparalleled success in such a short period of time saw him break the longstanding record held by pre-World War II spinner Clarrie Grimmett to become the fastest to 200 Test wickets in 33 games.

He continues to be an integral part of Pakistan s Test set-up and is expected to be in action during the upcoming series against New Zealand.

Meanwhile, India skipper Virat Kohli bagged the maximum number of nominations possible for a single player as he has been shortlisted in the Player of the Decade, Test Player of the Decade, ODI Player of the Decade, T20I Player of the Decade and Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade categories.

Kohli s presence in the elite list is hardly surprising as he averages in excess of 50 in all formats and boasts a tally of 70 international hundreds, which is only behind Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar.

The final winners will be announced in due course and will be adjudged on the basis of how many votes they receive. Fans  choice will be taken into account in deciding the winners in the respective categories as their votes will constitute 10% of the polling while the expert panel s votes will make up for the remaining 90%.

The full list of nominations is as follows:

ICC Men’s Player of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Joe Root (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Steve Smith (Australia), Ravichandran Ashwin (India), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

ICC Women’s Player of the Decade: Ellyse Perry (Australia), Meg Lanning (Australia), Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Mithali Raj (India), Sarah Taylor (England)

ICC Men’s Test Player of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Joe Root (England), Steve Smith (Australia), James Anderson (England), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka), Yasir Shah (Pakistan)

ICC Men’s ODI Player of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Mitchell Starc (Australia), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Rohit Sharma (India), MS Dhoni (India), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka)

ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade: Virat Kohli (India), Kane Williamson (New Zealand), Anya Shrubsole (England), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pakistan), Brendon McCullum (New Zealand), Katherine Brunt (England), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), MS Dhoni (India) ICC Women’s ODI Player of the Decade: Meg Lanning (Australia), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Suzie Bates (New Zealand), Stafanie Taylor (West Indies), Mithali Raj (India), Jhulan Goswami (India)

ICC Men’s T20I Player of the Decade: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Virat Kohli (India), Rohit Sharma (India), Imran Tahir (South Africa), Aaron Finch (Australia), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Chris Gayle (West Indies)

ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Decade: Meg Lanning (Australia), Sophie Devine (New Zealand), Ellyse Perry (Australia), Deandra Dottin (West Indies), Alyssa Healy (Australia), Anya Shrubsole (England)

ICC Men’s Associate Player of the Decade: Kyle Coetzer (Scotland), Callum Macleod (Scotland), Paras Khadka (Nepal), Richie Berrington (Scotland), Asad Vala (Papua New Guinea), Peter Borren (Netherlands)

ICC Women’s Associate Player of the Decade: Nattakan Chantam (Thailand), Sornnorin Tippoch (Thailand), Chanida Sutthiruang (Thailand), Kathryn Bruce (Scotland), Sarah Bryce (Scotland), Sterre Kalis (Netherlands)