Dubai: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf has announced a special award for Saeed Ajmal after the spin bowler was left off the shortlist for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Player of the Year.
The exclusion of the top-ranked one-day international bowler from the shortlist has led to widespread fury in Pakistan, and there have been talks that the team could boycott the ICC awards ceremony, due to take place in Sri Lankan capital Colombo on September 15.
“Saeed Ajmal, we still say you”re the No 1 bowler in the world and the PCB recognises you, and whether someone gives you the prize, that is immaterial, we don”t care,” Ashraf said on Monday in a function for the Pakistan squad.
“We congratulate you and when you come back home (after the World Twenty20) we will give you a prize for being the No 1 bowler in the world,” he added.
During the period under consideration for the award (August 4 2011 to August 6 2012), Ajmal took 120 wickets in Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals, including 24 wickets in three tests against England in January and February.
Photo Courtesy: Khelnama
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