THE International Cricket Council (ICC) have apologised to England spinner Graeme Swann for leaving him off the initial long list for Cricketer-of-the-Year and belatedly added him to 16 other contenders.
Swann, ranked as the third best bowler in the world, has enjoyed a fine 12 months across the formats and was voted England’s player-of-the-year earlier in the summer.
But despite taking 49 Test wickets at 27.55 and 28 one-day wickets at 23 in the qualification period, not to mention winning the World Twenty20, he was not among the contenders announced on Wednesday.
Clive Lloyd, who was joined by Duncan Fletcher, Angus Fraser, Matthew Hayden and Ravi Shastri on the selection panel, said: “It was a genuine oversight on the part of the committee as Graeme fully deserved to be nominated in this category.”
He added: “Graeme, during the voting period, produced some very strong performances which puts him alongside the other top performers. On behalf of the selection panel, I apologise for this oversight.”
Swann is also nominated for the Test Player-of-the-Year award, alongside team-mate James Anderson, while Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Eoin Morgan are all up for the Emerging Player title. (Eurosport)