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Pakistan 149 for 6 (Razzaq 46*, Swann 3-14) beat England 148 for 6 (Pietersen 62) v Pakistan
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKevin Pietersen returned to his best form with a 40-ball 62, but he was overshadowed by Abdul Razzaq’s late show•PA Photos

Abdul Razzaq produced a blistering innings of 46 not out from 18 balls as Pakistan squared the two-match Twenty20 series in dramatic style in Dubai. Defending a target of 148 following a timely return to form for Kevin Pietersen, England’s bowlers looked to have the game in the bag as Pakistan slumped to 78 for 5 after 13 overs, following a two-wicket debut over from Ajmal Shahzad, and a brilliant spell of 4-1-14-3 from Graeme Swann.Razzaq, however, decided that aggression was the best route out of the hole that Pakistan had dug for themselves. After a solitary sighter, he launched Paul Collingwood over midwicket for six twice in two balls, and then repeated the dose one over later, as Luke Wright was battered into the long-off stands.With 44 runs required from the final five overs, the momentum of the match had suddenly turned, and Fawad Alam kept up the pressure by milking 13 runs from Stuart Broad’s next over, including four consecutive twos, and a last-ball boundary as Shahzad on the edge of the circle muffed a half-chance for a diving catch. Three balls later, Fawad continued the onslaught by bludgeoning Tim Bresnan straight down the ground, and though he picked out Eoin Morgan on the midwicket boundary soon afterwards, he had helped add 48 match-changing runs in four overs.The equation was 18 runs from 12 balls when Shahzad was recalled to bowl the penultimate over of the innings, but Razzaq was ready for his bustling approach and slotted him into the long-off stands for his fourth six of the innings, before sealing the contest with his fifth and largest blow of the night, a mighty heave into the heavens. The game was done and dusted with a full over in hand, to give Pakistan their first victory in 11 outings in all internationals.Such a finale hadn’t looked at all likely for much of the evening, not least when Shahzad – a late replacement for Ryan Sidebottom – was handed the ball to bowl the first over of England’s innings. His first delivery was inauspicious, as Imran Nazir clunked him back over his head, but two balls later he had his revenge, as Nazir charged down the pitch to a short but straight delivery, and top-edged a wild smear into the hands of Bresnan at third man.Before the over was complete, Shahzad had claimed his second, as Imran Farhat flapped another loose pull, this time to Broad at mid-off, and at 4 for 2 after five deliveries, Pakistan were in some serious strife. Though Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal redressed the balance of the innings with an aggressive third-wicket stand of 36 in five overs, Swann suckered Malik with the first ball of his spell – a leg-side wide that resulted in a smart stumping from Prior – before Shahid Afridi and Akmal both launched ambitious hoicks into the hands of Morgan at midwicket.Once again, England found themselves unable to defend a total of less than 150 – they have never yet managed that feat in Twenty20 internationals. But it was far from a gloomy evening for their long-term prospects, not least because Pietersen confirmed that he is close to finding his best form. With Jonathan Trott providing solid support in a 98-run stand for the second wicket, Pietersen cracked four fours and three sixes – including one of the biggest hits of the week – to power England along to 148 for 6.It was blistering batting from Pietersen, whose confidence was sky-high after a measured 43 from 43 balls in Friday’s opening contest. Whereas in that encounter he had been happy to play second-fiddle to an excellent performance from Morgan, this time he was ready to resume his more typical front-running approach.After a sighter from Arafat that fizzed past his leg stump for five wides, Pietersen got into his stride by advancing down the pitch to Razzaq to swing a lofted drive over wide mid-on. His next boundary had a modicum of good fortune as he threaded the gap between gully and backward point with a cramped cut shot, but his next shot in anger was one of pure class – a rifling drive off Saeed Ajmal, that rebounded off the steps of the second-tier hospitality boxes, and left one embarrassed spectator on his backside.The biggest let-down for England was the continuing poor form of Joe Denly, whose place at the top of the order is now in serious jeopardy following England’s decision to call the big-hitting Craig Kieswetter into the one-day party for Bangladesh. Denly came into the contest with a total of 15 runs in his previous four Twenty20 innings, but he managed to add just five more runs to that tally from a further 10 deliveries, before Yasir Arafat nipped a good-length delivery back through his gate.

Scorecard
Mahela Jayawardene’s 91 off 49 balls stole the show•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Wayamba retained the Inter-provincial Twenty20 title for the third time after a clinical performance in the final, outplaying Ruhuna in all three departments of the game at Moratuwa. Two Sri Lankan stars, Mahela Jayawardene and Ajantha Mendis, were the heroes for Wayamba.Former captain Jayawardene continued his brilliant form in the tournament with 91 off 49 balls, which included six sixes and 10 fours. After Ruhuna had asked Wayamba to bat, Jayawardene and his in-form opening partner Jeevantha Kulatunga got the team off to a flying start with a stand of 89 in 7.4 overs. Despite the loss of Kulatunga for 26, Jayawardene kept Wayamba in top gear during short partnerships with captain Jehan Mubarak (21) and Janith Perera (34) which set them up for a 200-plus score.Facing a tall target, Ruhuna lost captain Upul Tharanga for a duck off the second ball of the chase. They fumbled in their attempt to maintain the required run-rate of ten runs an over, with Sanath Jayasuriya’s exit for 9 pegging them back further. After opening bowlers Chanaka Welegedara and Isuru Udana had limited Ruhuna’s run-rate by grabbing the first three wickets, Sri Lanka spinner Mendis ran through the middle order, taking 4 for 9 off 3.2 overs. Ruhuna folded for 113.Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Chandimal provided the only resistance, hitting 64 off 33 balls before being seventh out at 105, unable to keep pace with the asking-rate, which had by then risen to almost 15 an over. It was small compensation for him when he won the Batsman-of-the-Tournament award.Wayamba, led by Jehan Mubarak, finished unbeaten, winning all seven matches including the final and looked the most complete side throughout the tournament. Kulatunga, who scored the only century of the tournament, was named Player of the Series.

“He maintained mastery of orthodox outswing and inswing from a neutral position without telegraphing his intent. He was lithe, with a wickedly fast arm that elevated him to express status. Only in inches was he lacking – but he even turned that to his advantage with a bouncer as malicious as they come, skidding on to the batsman.” Mike Selvey could have been writing about Dale Steyn, and not Malcolm Denzil Marshall, who took his final Test wicket, Graham Gooch, when the boy from Phalaborwa was all of eight years old.Pound for pound, Marshall was probably the greatest fast bowler of all time. Doubters need only look at the tour of India in 1983, when his 33 wickets at 18.81 came against a batting core – Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Kapil Dev – that finished with 81 centuries between them. Steyn is no facsimile of the Bajan titan. His action is far more classical and side-on, where Marshall was more open-chested. But like his predecessor, Steyn can bowl furiously quick, and hoop the ball both ways. When he nips it back off the seam as well, he’s nigh on unplayable.The masterclass in Nagpur had everything, conventional swing with the new ball that got him the wickets of Murali Vijay and Sachin Tendulkar and a blistering reverse-swing whirlwind after tea that saw India lose their last six wickets for 12. Steyn’s figures for that passage of play were 3.4-2-3-5. At the WACA in its pace-and-bounce heyday, it would have been eye-catching. On a relatively placid Nagpur pitch, it was mindboggling.Ignore Virender Sehwag, a batting iconoclast. The other Indian batsmen faced 62 balls from Steyn, scoring 17 runs. That would suggest that he frustrated the opposition out. Far from it. Each man was worked out in a certain way. Vijay had already been troubled enough by the outswinger when Steyn summoned up the sort of incoming delivery that had detonated the stumps of Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell in the recent home series. Tendulkar had driven an outswinger for four in his previous over, but one pitched slightly shorter and a couple of inches closer to middle stump suckered him into another drive that only found the edge. It was straight out of said-the-spider-to-the-fly.Even as he finished with 7 for 51, Steyn spoke with special fondness of the Tendulkar dismissal. “That one, and Vijay just before him,” he said almost bashfully. “I worked him [Vijay] out quite nicely with two balls that went away and then bringing one back in which he left. That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen out in the middle. We’ve really planned it.”As a quick bowler, you know that if you pitch the ball up, you’ll get driven,” he said of the trap set for Tendulkar. “But when you pitch it up, you have a chance of finding the edge of the bat. I didn’t mind being hit for four down the ground or being nicked through the slips. If he’s willing to drive, there’s a chance I can get a wicket. That’s the risk you take when you pitch up.”Circumstances too played a part with the ball splitting open after 55 overs, by which time India had progressed to 212 for 4. Paul Harris and JP Duminy bowled a couple of overs with the replacement before tea, and then the fun commenced. “Corrie [van Zyl] sat us down at tea and said that the session after lunch wasn’t good enough,” said Steyn. “We didn’t get the wickets that we wanted. We had the ball changed and once it started to reverse and we got one or two lucky dismissals, it just started a roll.”He certainly isn’t the first South African quick to wreak havoc in Indian conditions. Even though he never delivered the sort of headline spell that Steyn managed on Monday, the great Allan Donald took 17 wickets at a paltry 16.11 in his four Tests in India. Lance Klusener once took eight in an innings at the Eden Gardens, but Steyn hadn’t asked for notes from either before embarking on this latest Indian adventure. “To be honest, I haven’t spoken to anyone like Allan,” he said. “But one thing that does happen in our side is that information gets passed on. When those guys leave, they pass it on to the remaining guys. Information on these wickets and how to bowl in these conditions will remain in our team. It’s up to the players in the side to actually go out there and execute the plans.”The biggest part of that plan was reverse swing, something that Steyn had stressed even in the build-up to the series. “You’re not going to get a lot of sideways movement off the wicket because there’s not a lot of grass on them,” he said with a smile. “You’ve got to rely on getting the ball to do something through the air. I said before that a ball bowled at 145k, whether it’s in Jo’burg or Nagpur, is still 145ks in the air. The plan was to hit the deck hard, with pace.”India’s extra-long tail was especially clueless against the kind of reverse swing that Waqar Younis once perfected. But just as lethal were the inswingers he bowled with the hard new ball. “It’s something I’ve been working a lot with in the nets,” he said. “I don’t want to reveal all my secrets. You work on these things and then it’s nice to see guys shoulder arms and then the ball cannons into the stumps. I got Bell like that in Johannesburg and that was where it started from. It’s a skill that you have to have in your armoury as a pace bowler.”Sehwag took 34 off the 38 balls he faced from Steyn in the first innings, but was altogether more shaky the second time. When he flailed one to slip, South Africa’s job of going one-up in the series was nearly half done. Emboldened by Steyn’s post-tea burst, Graeme Smith hadn’t gone the safety-first route and batted again. “Some of the guys wanted to know if we should go out and bat again and really take the game away from India,” said Steyn. “Or whether the bowlers had enough energy to come out there and bowl for another 25 overs. It was a quick chat and it worked out quite nicely. We wanted to pick up two to three wickets and we were able to get two.”Five years ago, Jason Gillespie produced one of the finest fast-bowling performances (9 for 80) seen on Indian soil as Australia romped to a 342-run victory at the old stadium across town. That though was a rather more helpful surface, with tufts of grass seldom seen on the subcontinent. Without that assistance, Steyn did what Marshall had done so memorably at Kanpur in the opening Test of that ’83 series, blitzing the batsmen with subtle movement at high pace. Steyn is hardly an imposing physical specimen, and it was an Indian bowler that Sunil Gavaskar recalled when asked about Marshall Law at Green Park. “He actually bowls more like Kapil, especially that outswinger. But he’s about 10k quicker.”On largely lifeless pitches, that extra hustle makes all the difference. Unless Tendulkar produces the kind of once-in-a-lifetime innings that VVS Laxman played in the Garden of Eden, India will be out of chips and on the street long before this match enters a fifth day.

Worcestershire have announced a pre-tax loss of £118,439 for the year ending 30th September 2009. The deficit compares with a profit of £359,856 in 2008 and epitomises the torrid year the club has had.They finished bottom of Division One of the Championship, where they failed to win a game and didn’t progress to the latter stages of any of the knock-out limited-overs tournaments. The poor on-field performances, combined with the fixture schedule, is what Mark Newton, Worcestershire’s chief executive, felt was behind the financial troubles.”These disappointing figures are the result of a number of issues we faced last year, particularly the recession, the poor fixture schedule and the team’s performance,” he said. “While the recession will continue to have an impact commercially, we have addressed the fixture schedule which will be a great deal more spectator friendly in 2010.”The upcoming season is already looking challenging for Worcestershire after a glut of senior players left the club, including their most experienced paceman, Kabir Ali, who was released on Thursday after an ongoing contract dispute.Yet Newton feels the offshoot of players leaving is that the finances will be less stretched and he is confident of returning to a profit next year. “We invested heavily in the team last year but unfortunately performances failed to meet expectations. A number of senior players have since moved on and our cricket budget has been reduced by around £300,000 this year. We expect to return to a surplus position this year.”The overall income of the club remained static in 2009 but only because of a 19% increase in the distribution from the ECB. While membership subscription held up to 2008 levels, income from both commercial and catering fell by 31% and 25% respectively.

Harbhajan Singh, the Indian offspinner, wants to win the 2011 World Cup and be part of teams that reached the top in all three formats of the game. India are presently the No. 1 Test side after beating Sri Lanka 2-0 at home; they won the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 and so the only world title that has eluded this team is the World Cup.”We’ve won the Twenty20 World Cup, we are the number one Test side and now if we can win the 2011 World Cup, that would be a great thing for Indian cricket and all of us who will be part of that triumphant squad,” Harbhajan told . “I will be on top of the world if it happens.”The closest India got to winning the World Cup, after their triumph in 1983, was in 2003, when they reached the final in South Africa but were crushed by Australia. “It would have been nice if we could win the 50-over cricket World Cup in 2003,” Harbhajan Singh said. “We could not win it but I have great memories of that tournament, of playing some really great matches along with some great players. It will be very exciting if we can win the 2011 World Cup.”India were drawn in Group B for the 2011 World Cup along with South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and the Netherlands. They will play the tournament opener against Bangladesh in Dhaka on February 19. “It would require special efforts and special performance [to win the World Cup] and that would add on to team’s success,” Harbhajan said. “I will be very happy if we can achieve that. It would be very satisfying.”

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, has warned against complacency on the eve of the second Test against Pakistan in Wellington. New Zealand emerged victors by 32 runs in a tense game in Dunedin but a 1-0 lead in the series, said Vettori, speaking from past experience, was no reason to let their guard down.”There is need for improvement, and a need for us not to get caught up in that [the win in the first Test],” Vettori said. “There is a series that needs to be won, we went 1-0 up against England and lost the series by resting on our laurels. There is a desire in the need to celebrate the Dunedin win but it’s not the end of the summer.”England beat New Zealand 2-1 last year, after losing the first Test in Hamilton. It was in Wellington that they levelled the series before going on to win the rubber in Napier, the venue for the next Test against Pakistan. Both teams, however, are short of practice due to persistent rain.”We might get some assistance from the conditions and the ball might seam around with the all the rain we’ve had,” Vettori said. “It’s been a difficult staying indoors. It’s a challenge I suppose and we should be better prepared than Pakistan in the limited time we’ve had.”With Shane Bond out of the series due to an abdominal strain, Chris Martin leads the pace attack. Daryl Tuffey will take Bond’s place in the XI while Tim Southee has been included in the 14-man squad to come as a cover in the event of an injury. “Over the past couple of years, I’ve looked at Martin as my strike bowler and have always thrown the ball to him,” Vettori said. “In the last Test I had the luxury of having two strike bowlers, with Iain [O’Brien] and myself clogging up one end and those two attacking. Depending on the conditions, maybe Daryl [Tuffey] could do that.”Vettori also saw a greater role for the allrounder Grant Elliott, who bowled just two overs in the first Test and has, so far, failed to replicate his good bowling record in ODIs in the longer format. “There’s hope that Grant can have a bigger role,” he said. “He’s worked harder to get ready for that. If I can manage those three seamers, that should be handy.”The Basin Reserve in Wellington will be hosting it’s 50th Test, and Vettori said he had plenty of fond memories of playing at the venue. “It’s one of my favourite grounds. It’s got a lot of history and its purely a cricket ground.” He singled out the Test match against India in 1999 as among his best memories, when New Zealand fought back from a difficult position to win the game. “When you play a Test match like the last one in Dunedin, you remember them and also the grounds you played them in,” he said.

Stuart Broad is among several England players considering playing in the third season of the IPL, the has reported. Broad turned down the chance to play in the 2009 season, choosing instead to focus on the Ashes, but his agent is reported to have been in touch with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.”We have had contact from Craig [Sackfield, Broad’s agent] and all players now have to write to me directly and arrange NOCs from their boards by December 31,” Modi said. “Then we will fix a minimum bid price and circulate their names to the franchises.”Modi said a lot of the slots had been taken but teams would probably be able to hire one or two players and there was a good chance of a lot of England players being involved. “The England players in Bangladesh will miss the first 10 days but the Australians and New Zealanders are unavailable until much later so that’s not a problem,” he said.Sackfield, who also manages Luke Wright and James Anderson, confirmed he was looking to secure contracts for all of them. “I have made initial contact as regards to all of my players … We just want to see what the situation is and what they have to do,” he said.Broad, speaking in Cape Town on Wednesday, confirmed his interest in playing in the league. “The IPL is something I’d like to play in at some stage, ” he said. “Whether I do it this year, I’m not sure. I’ve not given it too much thought.”The IPL has capped bid prices at US $750,000 for 2010 contracts and Broad’s price could be hiked by a bidding war depending on the number of franchises interested in his services.

Australia’s chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch has conceded that his panel will soon face one of its biggest decisions over the future of Michael Hussey. Once the rock of Australia’s middle order, Hussey, 34, has battled for impact over the past year and will be under pressure to have a big home summer.In the past 12 months he has averaged 30.40 in 15 Tests and his only century during that time came in his most recent Test – the Ashes loss at The Oval, where he made 121. He finished sixth on Australia’s Ashes run tally and had a horror run against South Africa earlier in the year, averaging 19.72 in the six Tests at home and away.His hundred at The Oval might have saved any tough calls on his future in the short term but the success of Marcus North since coming into the Test line-up has confirmed there are players at state level ready to make the next step. The big question is how long the selectors can persist with Hussey if he struggles again.”It’s been a tough 12 months [for Hussey] and it is going to be one of our biggest decisions as to really assess how he is going at the moment,” Hilditch told the . “It will be something we have to talk about when we meet as a selection group.”Until we have that meeting I can’t really say anything more. To the Australian group he [Hussey] is one of our core players and a great team man.”The selectors also face a dilemma over how to handle Brett Lee, who battled injury during the Ashes and didn’t play a Test but has been rejuvenated in one-day and Twenty20 cricket since then. Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus formed the core of the pace attack in South Africa and England, and squeezing Lee back into the group will not be easy.”The reality is at the start of the summer we will be in a similar position [to the end of the Ashes] – Johnson, Siddle and Hilfenhaus did a very good job for us in England,” Hilditch said. “I’ve got every expectation they would be right in the mix for the first Test. The fact that Brett is playing good one-day cricket is helping his prospects.”Hilditch has been reappointed as Australia’s chairman of selectors for two more years and he will be hoping for a less fraught time than he has experienced over the past 12 months. His panel was criticised for leaving Nathan Hauritz out of The Oval Test on a pitch that turned and Hilditch has since conceded that was the wrong call.”We misread the pitch,” he said. “We didn’t expect it to turn like that. In hindsight we should have picked Hauritz.”

New Zealand, dogged by injury throughout the Champions Trophy, received the biggest blow on the eve of the final when Daniel Vettori, their captain and leading performer through the tournament, was forced out of the game with a hamstring injury.New Zealand, severely depleted already, will miss Vettori’s left-arm spin on a pitch that is expected to take turn, as well as his assured presence in the lower middle order. The value of Vettori’s allround performance – 3 for 43 and a vital 41 off 42 balls in a nervy run-chase – was fully seen in their semi-final win against Pakistan.Vettori is New Zealand’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament with seven and leads their batting averages. Such were the expected conditions in Centurion, Vettori had hinted on the eve of the final that New Zealand might consider playing two spinners; as a result of the injury, Jeetan Patel was named in the starting line-up as the only spinner.New Zealand’s run to the final has been made all the more credible, given the injury list they have built up. Before Vettori, at various stages in the tournament, they have lost key players in Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Daryl Tuffey. Ian Butler missed the first game with an intestinal infection and Grant Elliott has played the last two games with a thumb injury.In his absence, Brendon McCullum took over to lead the side for only the second time in ODIs. His first match as captain also came earlier this year, against India in March.

The ICC’s prestigious annual awards appears to have run into a controversy with several high-profile figures from South Africa, including Gerald Majola, the national cricket board’s chief executive, criticising the final selection process for not including a single South African player. Majola questioned the credibility of the awards – which will be presented in Johannesburg on October 1 – and said it appeared to him that the only way to get on the shortlist was to play the Ashes.Majola’s views have been echoed by Mickey Arthur, the South Africa coach, who said the “very disappointing” nominations shortlist would motivate his players to perform better in the ICC Champions Trophy starting on September 22. Allan Donald, the former South Africa fast bowler and a member of the awards voting panel, admitted that he was surprised by the shortlist. Journalist Neil Manthorp, the only other South African on the 25-member panel, wrote that the honour of being on that jury had turned into an embarrassment. Cricinfo has also received angry emails from readers complaining about the omissions.When contacted, an ICC spokesperson said that the awards nomination “is a completely independent process in which the ICC has no say whatsoever”.”To me, it looks like the only way to get on these nomination lists is to play the Ashes,” Majola told Cricinfo. “Unfortunately, our players don’t play for England or Australia. That seems to be the criteria to select these awards. I don’t know what the criteria are for these nominations but I simply can’t believe that this has happened to South African players. My personal opinion is that this doesn’t lend credibility to this year’s awards, for sure. To rub salt to our wounds, the awards ceremony is being held in our country.”I am totally dismayed and disappointed. The last season was one of the best ever for South Africa and there were a lot of outstanding performances by our players. In my personal opinion, there were at least three South African players who should have figured on the shortlist. But I am not going to name them because I don’t want to drag our players into this issue when they are preparing for the Champions Trophy. I haven’t spoken to them about this either.”Donald revealed that he had nominated two South African players for the shortlist. “But I am surprised to see that there is no one from South Africa in the final list,” he told Cricinfo.The long list of nominations for the individual awards was prepared by a five-member ICC panel headed by Clive Lloyd, the ICC’s cricket committee chairman, and including Anil Kumble, Mudassar Nazar, Bob Taylor and Stephen Fleming. The performance period taken into account was August 13, 2008 to August 24, 2009. This list was then sent to the ICC’s independent panel of 25 members – including two South Africans, Allan Donald and Manthorp – to vote for the shortlist of the top four contenders in each category.The independent panel included former players Ian Healy, Ramiz Raja, Athar Ali Khan, Allan Donald, Bob Willis, Sidath Wettimuny, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Ian Bishop, Jeremy Coney, Dave Houghton, Roland Lefebvre. The media was represented by Jim Maxwell (Aus), Osman Samiuddin (Cricinfo’s Pakistan editor), Sayeed Uzzaman (Ban), Neil Manthorp (SA), Scyld Berry (Eng), Ramil Abeynaike (SL), Sharda Ugra (Ind), Fazeer Mohammed (WI), Richard Boock (NZ), Enock Nuchinjo (Zim) and Jon Coates (Associates). The officials were ICC referees elite panel representative: Alan Hurst; ICC umpires elite panel representative: Billy Bowden and chairman of the ICC cricket committee: Clive Lloyd.While the shortlist was announced on Tuesday, the category winners will be known only on awards night. The votes have already been collated by Ernst and Young, who acted as independent auditors.South Africa are currently the No. 1 Test and ODI team on the ICC rankings and the long list, reflecting this, featured four South African players. Graeme Smith, who led his team to their first Test series win ever in Australia, and AB deVilliers, who hit two match-winning centuries against Australia – one of them set up that historic away series win – were nominated for Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year; Dale Steyn, who was ICC’s Test Player of the Year in 2008, also featured on the long list for the best Test player; and Wayne Parnell, the left-arm fast bowler, was nominated for the best Twenty20 International Performance of the year.None of them made it to the final four in their categories.Writing on the SuperSport website, Manthorp said the fault lay not with the ICC but with the system used for determining the award winners. The 25-member panel has to select the final nominees from a dozen or more names on the long list, which, he said, was simply too time-consuming to be done thoroughly. There were “plenty of Proteas” on the long list, he said, but not having played for three months meant they were “out of sight and out of mind.”Andrew Strauss, the England captain, and Mitchell Johnson, the Australian fast bowler, figure in both the shortlists (of four players each) for Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year. MS Dhoni, the India captain and Gautam Gambhir, the India opener, are the other shortlisted nominees for Cricketer of the Year; Gambhir and Thilan Samaraweera, the Sri Lankan batsman, are also in the race for the best Test player.However, South African players can still be part of the awards night by featuring in the best Test and ODI teams for the last year that will be announced at the ceremony. Smith, for instance, was named captain of the best Test selection last time in a team that also featured Jacques Kallis and Steyn. Herchelle Gibbs was part of the best ODI selection last year.