Arshdeep, Mandhana nominated for ICC awards
Dubai, Dec 29: Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh has been nominated for the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Year award following a stellar season in which he emerged as the joint highest wicket-taker and played a pivotal role in India's T20 World Cup triumph.
The 25-year-old will compete for the prestigious honour alongside Pakistan's Babar Azam, Australia's Travis Head, and Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza, all of whom are among the standout performers this year.
Stylish Indian opener Smriti Mandhana too will be vying for an ICC award after being nominated for ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year for her standout performance in international cricket.
Laura Wolvaardt (South Africa), Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka) and Annabel Sutherland (Australia) are the other experienced cricketers competing for the award.
Arshdeep's sensational show in 2024
Singh, a left-arm pacer, was a key figure in India's T20 World Cup victory in Barbados. He finished the year as the joint highest wicket-taker in T20Is, with 36 wickets in 18 matches at an impressive average of 13.5.
His tally was the second-highest by an Indian pacer in T20Is in a calendar year, just behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar's 37 wickets in 2022.
Singh claimed 17 wickets in the T20 World Cup, tying with Afghanistan's Fazalhaq Farooqi for the most wickets in the tournament.
His most memorable moment came in the final, where he dismissed key players Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock early, derailing South Africa's chase of 177. In the high-pressure 19th over, he conceded just four runs, increasing the required run rate and setting the stage for India's victory.
Mandhana delivers sparkling performances
Mandhana, a left-handed opener, amassed 743 runs in 12 innings at an impressive average of 61.91 and a strike rate of 96.99 and also claimed a wicket in what turned out to be a memorable season.
The 28-year-old hit a pair of centuries in June against South Africa in Bengaluru to get her 2024 campaign rolling before managing two more hundreds later in the year to stay in good touch right up until December.
Mandhana managed a total of 343 runs from three innings in a Player of the Series effort against South Africa in June. She got her third hundred when amassing 100 in the final match of India's home series against New Zealand right after the completion of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup.
Another hundred followed in the final match of her side's three-game series with Australia in December, but that was in vain as the Aussies completed a 3-0 series sweep of their own.
Mandhana's best all-round effort came in the second match of India's home series against South Africa, when she scored a century and picked up a key wicket to help her side to a narrow four-wicket victory.
The winners of the ICC Awards 2024 will be announced in late January 2025.
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— ICC (@ICC) December 29, 2024
A star-studded shortlist for ICC Men’s T20I Cricketer of the Year has been revealed 👀#ICCAwardshttps://t.co/mhvz13ik6i
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
