Ganguly pockets CEAT award, oldies honoured too

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was awarded the 1999-2000 CEAT International Cricketer of the Year award at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai on Friday. He received the award, which carries a cheque worth Rs. five lakh, from Sanjeev Goenka of the RPG group. The Indian skipper, who collected 98 points during the season, just edged out compatriot Sachin Tendulkar and Kiwi allrounder Chris Cairns with 95 points each.

"It is a great honour and a great personal achievement. I would have been happier had the Indian team also done well. We are a talented side and there is no reason why we cannot win the team award in the next two years", said Ganguly according to a CEAT press release. "Now at the end of a year of good performance we know there is something to look forward to. It is a terrific incentive", he added.

Five years ago, leading tyre manufacturer CEAT Limited in partnership with Professional Management Group (PMG), the sports marketing company, instituted the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year Award. Player performances from the period May 1 to April 30 were graded according to the CEAT Ratings System and the past winners are Brian Lara, Venkatesh Prasad, Sanath Jayasuriya and Jacques Kallis.

The points are accumulated as follows: Batting: 35 runs in an innings - 1 point. 50 runs - 1 additional point. Every 25 runs thereafter - 1 point each. A century in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus. A double century in an innings - 6 additional points as bonus. A triple century in an innings - 9 additional points as bonus

Bowling: Two wickets in an innings - 1 point, Every subsequent wicket - 1 point. Five wickets in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus. Nine wickets in an innings - 6 additional points as bonus. Ten wickets in an innings - 11 additional points as bonus. Ten wickets in a match - 6 additional points as bonus.

The CEAT International Team of the Year award was picked up by Allan Border on behalf of the Australian team which lifted the World Cup in 1999 and are currently riding high on a ten Test winning streak. The 154 points Australia gained in both Tests and ODI's over the last season put them far ahead of nearest rivals South Africa with 103 points.

CEAT also chose the occasion to honour four former Indian stars who would have topped the charts for earlier seasons had the award existed at that time. The four are Vinoo Mankad (for 1951-52 and 1952-53), Erapalli Prasanna (1967-68 and 1969-70), Sunil Gavaskar (1970-71) and Dilip Vengsarkar (1986-87). While the latter three were present for the function, Nirupama Mankad, wife of Ashok and daughter-in-law of Vinoo collected the award posthumously on his behalf. They were each given a trophy and a cash award of Rs. 51,000.

Mankad's achievements in the two seasons include the sublime Lord's performance of 1952 when he scored 72 & 184 and bowled a marathon spell of 5-196. He also completed the quickest double (in 23 Tests) of 1000 runs and 100 wickets against Pakistan at Bombay in 1952-53. Prasanna snared 95 wickets in 16 Tests against Australia and New Zealand in those twin seasons, helping India to a first ever series victory abroad (in New Zealand in 1967-68). Gavaskar's 774 runs in his debut series in the Caribbean was enough to beat allcomers while Vengsarkar's third successive Lord's century was the centrepiece of a magnificent season in 1986-87.