Qadir ridicules ‘unnecessary and pointless’ ICC awards

Believes the world governing board has much better things to do than this

KARACHI: Branding several of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) awards unnecessary, former Pakistan captain Abdul Qadir has stressed that the governing body needs to spend more time doing something constructive rather than ‘indulging in needless activities’.

On Thursday, the ICC announced several awards for cricketers which included a ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award for Pakistan Test captain Misbahul Haq. The governing body also named its Test and ODI teams for 2016 which featured no Pakistani player and that did not sit well with Qadir.

“I don’t understand what the point of these awards is,” Qadir told The Express Tribune. “The ICC is causing divide by naming their own versions of the best teams in Test and ODIs. Pakistan attained number one position in Tests this year, yet no player from the side found a place. I find that quite surprising.”

Qadir also said that the ICC should have named Misbah the best captain of the year if they wanted to honour him. “If ICC had to honour Misbah for his good work, they should have picked him as the best captain of the year.”

Qadir, who played 67 Tests and 104 ODIs, said the ICC has much important tasks at hand and should work on finding a solution to those first rather than give out ‘unnecessary awards’.

“Most importantly, we are yet to see any ICC effort against corruption in the game. Those who have been caught for match-fixing was a result of domestic effort and ICC had no role to play in it. Similarly, the ICC needs to work on the viability of the DRS and making its ranking system much better. They should be doing more than just giving out these unnecessary awards.”