Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra raised doubts about the significance of the ICC (International Cricket Council) awards, suggesting that the winners are often forgotten. He pointed out that he couldn’t recall the ICC Cricketer of the Year award winners from the past five years.
The ICC recently announced its annual awards for 2024, honouring the top players across formats, as well as selecting the teams of the year for each format.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra, the former India opener, praised Jasprit Bumrah for being named the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2024. However, he questioned whether anyone could remember the past winners of this prestigious award.
“Jasprit Bumrah’s recognition as the Cricketer of the Year and recipient of the Sir Garfield Sobers Award is truly remarkable, especially given that bowlers rarely earn such accolades. The last bowler to win it was Ravichandran Ashwin, and that was largely due to his batting contributions as well. It’s a rare feat for a pure bowler, but Bumrah has certainly earned it with his exceptional performance,” he commented (1:35).
“He guided India to victory in the T20 World Cup and has claimed 71 wickets in Test matches. Arshdeep Singh (ICC T20I Cricketer of the Year 2024) is also making waves. But here’s a thought—can you recall who won Player of the Year in the past five years without Googling it? I have my doubts, and even I’m struggling to remember,” Chopra remarked.
“They’ve also announced the teams of the year. Four Indians Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, and Arshdeep Singh are in the T20I team of the year, which makes sense. Interestingly, there’s no South African. They lost to us in the final, yet the ICC didn’t include a single South African in this team,” he remarked (3:30) in the same video.
“When I look at the Test team of the year, I see Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja, which is great, but again, no South Africans. They were in the T20 World Cup final and are in the WTC final. The ODI team feels like an Asia XI. If you exclude one player (Sherfane Rutherford), the rest are all Asians,” Chopra observed.
Chopra also questioned the relevance of the ODI Team of the Year, pointing out that most teams, including India, played very few 50-over matches. He noted that both Bangladesh and South Africa, like many others, were absent from the representation in any of the three format teams, both on and off the field.