Only three Indian men have found it to the preliminary list of candidates in the running for the International Cricket Council's annual individual awards for 2007 and significantly, captain Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly do not find a place in it.
Re-invigorated left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan, veteran leg-spinner Anil Kumble and left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh are the trio of Indian players who have been nominated for the individual awards by a five-member ICC panel headed by cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, it was announced in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Zaheer and Kumble have been nominated for the 'Test Player of the Year' award along with 19 others while Yuvraj finds a berth in the 19-strong list of nominees for the 'ODI Player of the Year' award released by the ICC.
Two other Indians, Rumeli Dhar and Jhulan Goswami, are in the running for the 'Women's Cricketer of the Year' prize.
No other Indian cricketer finds a place in the other three eligible categories -- Emerging Player, Cricketer of the Year and Captain of the Year -- while Australian World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting and Sri Lanka's skipper Mahela Jayawardene have been nominated in four categories.
"The first list would be pruned down by September 4 before the winners are announced at the ICC's awards' function in Johannesburg on September 10, the eve of the ICC World Twenty20 Cup," Speed told a media conference in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The period for which the performances of various players have been taken into consideration for nominations was August 9, 2006 to August 8, 2007, Speed said.
The nominations were made by a panel consisting of Gavaskar, Chris Cairns (New Zealand), Gary Kirsten (SA), Iqbal Qasim (Pakistan) and Alec Stewart (England).
Speed said there is still a chance for those who have not found a berth in the different lists as the ICC has introduced a wild card option for the 56-strong panel who will cast their votes to decide the award winners.
The voters' panel is made up of 10 full ICC Test member captains, 10 elite panel umpires, eight match referees, 28 former greats of the game and members of the media.
This year the ICC has introduced a prize for the Associate ODI Player of the year too, Speed announced.
