A former Halberg Sports Awards judge says the absence of Black Caps spinner Ajaz Patel among this year's finalists casts a shadow over the annual awards ceremony.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Patel made history at the end of 2021 when he became just the third bowler in the history of test cricket to take ten wickets in an innings.
The feat came when the left-arm off-spinner took 10-119 for New Zealand in the second test against India in Mumbai.
But, despite his history-making effort, Patel did not feature in the sportsman of the year finalists when they were confirmed alongside the other categories on Wednesday.
A judge on the Halberg Awards panel for 15 years until 2004, longtime sports journalist Joseph Romanos said he was stunned by the omission.
"Obviously the awards will be contentious because everyone who likes a particular sport wants that sport to do well. That's not a problem.
"But when there's glaring errors like this. I mean, 10 wickets in an innings is so rare, and he can't even make our finalists.
"That's ridiculous and it doesn't reflect well on the awards as a whole ... it does cast a bit of pall over it when you've got a glaring mistake."
The five finalists for the sportsman award were squash player Paul Coll, who defended the British Open title and won singles and mixed doubles gold at the Commonwealth Games, cyclist Aaron Gate, who won four Commonwealth Games medals, Olympic snowboarding gold medallist Nico Porteous, world champion trampolinist Dylan Schmidt and Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen.
Patel's absence from the list comes more than a year after his historic achievement because it narrowly fell outside the cut-off date for last year's awards.
Romanos was sure that delay had been a factor, even if it wasn't supposed to be, but was at a loss to why the Black Caps spinner wouldn't be a finalist otherwise.
"I'm gobsmacked he couldn't make the list.
"In nearly 150 years of test cricket, all those test matches that have been played, only three bowlers have taken 10 wickets in an innings.
"To think that that feat doesn't make him a finalist is astounding to me.
"They could have easily extended the sportsman category so everyone who truly deserved to be a finalist was there."
Romanos said as well as being dumbfounded by the news, he felt sympathy for the man at the centre of it.
"I feel very sorry for Ajaz. He's had the worst reaction to taking all 10 wickets in an innings you could imagine.
"He couldn't make the test team afterwards and was overlooked for the very next test match.
"Now he can't even make the Halberg finalists. You'd think he'd taken two or three wickets."
Responding to a request for comment on Patel's omission, the Halberg Foundation provided a statement.
"The Halberg Foundations role in the awards is to facilitate the nominations and voting process, verify the nomination information and host the event.
"This year the Sportsman of the Year category had 22 nominations. We have a panel of 25 judges, including media, former athletes and sports administrators who independently judge the main award categories.
"There are four key criteria relating to performance and achievement which the judges use their own interpretation of when considering the entries."
New Zealand Cricket declined to comment.
- RNZ