Is it even remotely possible that the Indian cricket contingent had an inkling that there would no illustrious awards for the Indian cricketers and is that why they stayed away from the LG ICC Awards 2011? Just another conspiracy theory.
Although it seems that there is a greater power battle here between the ICC and the BCCI, there was also the thought, although on a level that would suggest more like finding the lighter side of it although the implications of it could be far reaching, that perhaps there was an indication that the Indian cricketers would not feature prominently by the end of the night as the ones holding the award in their hands.
It would be safe to say that apart of the Spirit of Cricket Award which was considered a no brainer, there were no reason for the Indian cricket to even be at the function other than the fact that this was the visiting team in the city where the LG ICC Awards were slated. Although there were four creditable Indian cricketers nominated across the various ICC Awards including Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, that the Indian cricketers were ultimately pipped to the award was rather comprehensive. Even the LG Popular Choice Award went the way of Kumar Sangakkara and not Dhoni although given the system under which popular cricketers around the world are picked, Dhoni would not have missed a beat.
The conspicuous absence of the Indian team, who one would have thought would have been there simply by default, as a while does raise questions whether there were unwritten collective team instructions by the BCCI to skip the ICC Awards over what is believed to be a power struggle between the BCCI and the ICC led by Sharad Pawar, the ICC President who was the former BCCI chief. That even Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain and the only other senior member of the Indian cricket team on the England tour, Rahul Dravid, raised more eyebrows at a ceremony that is considered to be the ultimate platform of recognition for the outstanding word of cricketers in the designated time period.
However, now there is the perception that perhaps in some way, there was communication of some sort that the Indian cricketers would not be felicitated in the night and therefore, the Indian cricket team deliberately skipped the awards ceremony, by diktat or otherwise. That though is merely speculative because for one, the awards are not usually released by way of announcement prior to the night itself and thereby, there should be no way that anyone within the Indian cricket administration or team should have had prior knowledge of it.
With that being ruled out, there is no logical way to explain the absence of the Indian cricketers from the awards function despite being in the same city of London other than it being something that the ICC will want to perhaps sort it out with the BCCI because there is something that is beneath the surface even if it is something that, in some people’s perception, that too much is being made about it.
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