New Delhi: The annual ESPNCricinfo awards, which recognises marvellous individual performances of the year, will be held in a much bigger scale this time around with two new special categories to be added to the list.
The jury for the awards includes some of the distinguish names in cricketing world -- Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid, Martin Crowe, Sanjay Manjrekar, Daryll Cullinan -- all of whom will shortlist best performances in Test and ODI formats of the game.
"The year 2013 witnessed some memorable and extraordinary moments in cricket. It was a quiet a task to shortlist brilliant individual performances. While shortlisting, we considered the impact of performances on match result and display of skills amongst other things," said Manjrekar.
Two special categories, to be formulated by jury members to the list of awards will be announced later.
Each of the four performance categories consists of 8-13 nominated individual efforts.
Meanwhile, fans will get a chance to select the debutant of the year.
"For me highlight of the year was a young Indian squad winning the ICC Champions Trophy. Mitchell Johnson's bowling effort in the Ashes was also sensational. He not only took wickets but intimidated the English batsmen," Manjrekar said.
India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli feature in both the Test and ODI batting performances of the year nominations.
The awards will be held in March at a gala event.
"The fans are in store for an exciting event. The awards ceremony is going to be bigger in magnitude. We have a great panel, which will discuss each and every aspect of the shortlisted performances," said Sambit Bal, Editor in Chief, ESPNcricinfo and member of the awards selection jury.
"Unlike others, these awards do not take into account performances in the entire year. A brilliant bowling or batting effort is enough for a player to bag this award. This makes the award more special for players," he added.
The awards also feature the Statsguru Awards -- more than 30 award categories based purely on statistical achievement from international matches in 2013.
