The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced their Awards of the Decade to recognise the best players across cricket over the past 10 years. A whole host of players including Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin from India, Steve Smith, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning from Australia, Joe Root, James Anderson and Sarah Taylor from England, Kumar Sangakkara and Lasith Malinga from Sri Lanka among others were nominated for different categories. For the first time, the fans' vote will be considered for picking the winners of the awards.
"The fan vote will make up 10% of the voting, while votes from an expert panel will make up the remaining 90%," read an ICC release.
"Fans will provide 100% of the vote for the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade, from a list of the past winners since 2011."
There are 10 categories in the awards namely Men's Cricketer of the Decade, Women's Cricketer of the Decade, Men's Cricketer of the Decade for Tests, ODIs and T20Is, Women's Cricketer of the Decade for ODIs and T20Is, Men's Associate Cricketer of the Decade, Women's Associate Cricketer of the Decade and the Spirit of Cricket Award of the Decade.
Fans can register their vote on the ICC's website. The winners will be announced in December, the ICC release said.
"Fans can register on our website icc-cricket.com/awards and vote for those shortlisted by an Awards Nominations Committee, based on performances during the period 1st January 2011 to 7th October 2020," the release read.
The full list of nominations can be found here.
The voting lines were open at 13:00 GST (Gulf Standard Time), 2:30 pm IST on November 25 and will close at midnight IST on December 16-17.