And the award goes to...

Has anyone ever heard of Dinesh Kartik? No, he’s not Murali Kartik, the spinner. He’s supposed to be a wicketkeeper and somehow he’s managed to get himself into the final list of nominees for the best emerging player award.

Well you all must have heard of Ian Bell. Yes, supposedly England’s most promising batsman since Gatting. Or was it Gower? Anyhow, you all must be familiar with his amazing scores in the Ashes. Played really well for his 20 something average. Well, he’s also managed to get himself to that list. Sounds like an emerging player to me. They say that the Ashes wouldn’t count towards deciding these awards. Then it most definitely has to be those special knocks he played against the insuperable Bangladeshis. He definitely has my vote.

Wait. There was this other player who I thought could’ve, well… he had a slim chance, of being named in that category. What was his name? I think it was Salman Butt. If I remember right, he made a test century at Sydney and scored 70 odd at Melbourne against Australia. But who doesn’t score against Australia, especially when it comes to test cricket. I think he also made two One-day centuries against India in India. But that shouldn’t count for much… India isn’t much of a competitor at home. The selection committee has really got it right this time. These stats show nothing of an emerging player to me. It’s after he’s scored a couple of tons against Bangladesh that’ll let him in the reckoning.

I think it would be only fair if Tendulkar gets the award. I know, I know… he’s been playing for quite some time now, but it wouldn’t be a credible list if Tendulkar’s not in it. After all, more than a billion Indians will be watching the awards and it wouldn’t be fair to them if at least half of the nominees weren’t Indian. This is where Sunil Gavaskar has really made the difference. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be assured of fair play and justice in both the ICC awards and the World XI selection.

This surely has been a fascinating and astonishing year. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t get ruined by giving the best player award to Inzamam.