Bilal Ahmad15
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Well, I have a lot of issues with cricket, such as everyone not playing everyone in the WTC, or everyone not playing the same number of test matches, useless Bilateral series. but I'm not going to talk about it anymore, as I did make a lengthy post a while back. However, one aspect I want to address is the awards and recognition, more to do with the World Test Championship.
Basically, you have these 9 Test Nations competing in what is meant to be the hardest cricket tournament to win, since its the most challenging format. The teams, and the players are playing for two years, and at the end of all of that, we have the two teams making the final, one winner, and nothing for the other 7 teams. And thats it. The Two Year Cycle ends, and shortly a new two year cycle will begin.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, because there isn't, (apart from the fact that the ICC WTC finals should be a three test match series, and not just one match!), but I just think there needs to be more recognition, more talking points in this World Test Championship.
And the solution is simple; have Awards for this format, championship. It gives a great talking point, therefore likelihood of more viewers. I would also argue that its also a very necessary requirement, because out of the nine teams, in honest reality, three or even four of the teams will be out of contention to the make the WTC finals, halfway throughout the WTC season, so having these awards sort of gives a new goal.
And now, what awards am I talking about?
Well, the obvious one is best player of the 'World Test Championship'. I would really like this award to be an award that cant be won in a fluke/ lucky style by a player who has just been a home track bully. It needs to be of the same reputation of the Ballon D'or. So then, all you do is put the following requirements for this award;
In order to qualify for the 'Best Player of the WTC' Award;
1. The player must have played/ got selected for a minimum of 10 WTC Test Matches, and must have played in at least 20 innings (in their department, e.g a batsman needed to have batted in at least 20 innings, bowler must have bowled in at least 20 WTC innings, and so on).
2. At least 5 of the total WTC matches a player played must have been either at an away or neutral venue. And so at least 10 of the total WTC matches a player played must have been at away or neutral venue.
So Basically I believe those two above requirements will prevent players who only perform well at home and players who have amazing stats due to playing so few matches from being nominated for this award.
So how should voting happen? Well it should be similar to how voting is done for 'The Best FIFA Mens Player' Award, where media representatives, national team coaches, captains, and also the general public get to vote.
Well, firstly I wouldn't let the general public vote. Secondly, since there aren't many journalists, media representatives in cricket, what I would do is allow the coach from each of the 9 test teams, and also I would allow the 18 players for each test team that made the most WTC appearances (for that WTC season) to vote. I would also have the commentators make their vote (but depends). Basically these voters get to nominate three players from the list of 22 players. first pick = 5 points, second pick = 3 points, third pick = 1 point. After all this voting, there needs to be a shortlist of the final nominees, and I would have four players to be the final nominees. Basically, there should be twenty-two players short-listed (And then reduced to four finalist nominees).
Next there is the 'Best XI of the WTC Season'
Once again, if a player wants to get nominated for this award, then they need to meet the same two requirements as listed for 'Best player of WTC' Award, above. So, in order to list twenty-two players, just make two teams, meaning there is two of everything. Example, in an 11, there is two opening batsmen, two top order batsman (#3 and 4), , one middle order batsman, one wk batsmen, three fast bowlers, one all-rounder, one spinner, so just multiply all of those by two. And there you have a simple criteria to follow. The point is that a number 3 or 4 batsman can only be voted for positions 3 or 4 in the 11. I like to have this criteria to prevent players batting or playing out of position.
The players who get selected for this Best WTX XI, is determined by the number of votes they get from the best player fo WTC season award vote, and also by a 'specialist committee' and commentators.
The final WTC award is the 'Young Player of the WTC Season' Award. The only criteria for this award;
- The player must have made their test debut when they played their first match in this WTC season. The player must also be 23 years or younger when making this debut match.
- Player must have played at least one innings in their role (batting, bowling, all rounder etc.)
Have 4 nominees, 1 winner, decided by 'specialist committee' and commentators. No large scale voting.
And there you have it.
No as for the current ICC Awards;
At the moment we have the following;
- Sir Garfield Sober Award (Player of the Year)
- Test Player of the Year
- Test Team of the Year
- ODI Player of the Year
- ODI Team of the Year
- T20 Player of the Year
- T20 Team of the Year
- Associate Cricketer of the Year
As you can see those are too many unnecessary recognitions, too many 'player of the years', too many 'team of the years'. And this results in too much annoying clusters of the same thing. So what I would do is remove everything except the Sir Garfield Sobers
Basically, you have these 9 Test Nations competing in what is meant to be the hardest cricket tournament to win, since its the most challenging format. The teams, and the players are playing for two years, and at the end of all of that, we have the two teams making the final, one winner, and nothing for the other 7 teams. And thats it. The Two Year Cycle ends, and shortly a new two year cycle will begin.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, because there isn't, (apart from the fact that the ICC WTC finals should be a three test match series, and not just one match!), but I just think there needs to be more recognition, more talking points in this World Test Championship.
And the solution is simple; have Awards for this format, championship. It gives a great talking point, therefore likelihood of more viewers. I would also argue that its also a very necessary requirement, because out of the nine teams, in honest reality, three or even four of the teams will be out of contention to the make the WTC finals, halfway throughout the WTC season, so having these awards sort of gives a new goal.
And now, what awards am I talking about?
Well, the obvious one is best player of the 'World Test Championship'. I would really like this award to be an award that cant be won in a fluke/ lucky style by a player who has just been a home track bully. It needs to be of the same reputation of the Ballon D'or. So then, all you do is put the following requirements for this award;
In order to qualify for the 'Best Player of the WTC' Award;
1. The player must have played/ got selected for a minimum of 10 WTC Test Matches, and must have played in at least 20 innings (in their department, e.g a batsman needed to have batted in at least 20 innings, bowler must have bowled in at least 20 WTC innings, and so on).
2. At least 5 of the total WTC matches a player played must have been either at an away or neutral venue. And so at least 10 of the total WTC matches a player played must have been at away or neutral venue.
So Basically I believe those two above requirements will prevent players who only perform well at home and players who have amazing stats due to playing so few matches from being nominated for this award.
So how should voting happen? Well it should be similar to how voting is done for 'The Best FIFA Mens Player' Award, where media representatives, national team coaches, captains, and also the general public get to vote.
Well, firstly I wouldn't let the general public vote. Secondly, since there aren't many journalists, media representatives in cricket, what I would do is allow the coach from each of the 9 test teams, and also I would allow the 18 players for each test team that made the most WTC appearances (for that WTC season) to vote. I would also have the commentators make their vote (but depends). Basically these voters get to nominate three players from the list of 22 players. first pick = 5 points, second pick = 3 points, third pick = 1 point. After all this voting, there needs to be a shortlist of the final nominees, and I would have four players to be the final nominees. Basically, there should be twenty-two players short-listed (And then reduced to four finalist nominees).
Next there is the 'Best XI of the WTC Season'
Once again, if a player wants to get nominated for this award, then they need to meet the same two requirements as listed for 'Best player of WTC' Award, above. So, in order to list twenty-two players, just make two teams, meaning there is two of everything. Example, in an 11, there is two opening batsmen, two top order batsman (#3 and 4), , one middle order batsman, one wk batsmen, three fast bowlers, one all-rounder, one spinner, so just multiply all of those by two. And there you have a simple criteria to follow. The point is that a number 3 or 4 batsman can only be voted for positions 3 or 4 in the 11. I like to have this criteria to prevent players batting or playing out of position.
The players who get selected for this Best WTX XI, is determined by the number of votes they get from the best player fo WTC season award vote, and also by a 'specialist committee' and commentators.
The final WTC award is the 'Young Player of the WTC Season' Award. The only criteria for this award;
- The player must have made their test debut when they played their first match in this WTC season. The player must also be 23 years or younger when making this debut match.
- Player must have played at least one innings in their role (batting, bowling, all rounder etc.)
Have 4 nominees, 1 winner, decided by 'specialist committee' and commentators. No large scale voting.
And there you have it.
No as for the current ICC Awards;
At the moment we have the following;
- Sir Garfield Sober Award (Player of the Year)
- Test Player of the Year
- Test Team of the Year
- ODI Player of the Year
- ODI Team of the Year
- T20 Player of the Year
- T20 Team of the Year
- Associate Cricketer of the Year
As you can see those are too many unnecessary recognitions, too many 'player of the years', too many 'team of the years'. And this results in too much annoying clusters of the same thing. So what I would do is remove everything except the Sir Garfield Sobers
