Mumbai: Dashing Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir, and hero of India’s 1983 World Cup win, Mohinder Amarnath, walked away with the biggest honours at the annual BCCI awards held in Mumbai.

Amarnath, who was the Man of the Match in the 1983 World Cup final win against the West Indies, walked away with the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, comprising a trophy and Rs 15 lakh. He followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father, former India captain Lala Amarnath, who had received the same honour in 1994.

Gautam Gambhir, meanwhile, bagged the Polly Umrigar Award for being India’s best cricketer between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. Gambhir had missed the third and final test against Sri Lanka to attend his sister’s wedding. India won the game by an innings and 24 runs which took them to the Number 1 spot in ICC test rankings.

The Delhi batsman, who received a trophy and a cheque for Rs 5 lakh, scored 1269 runs from eight Tests at an average of 84.60 (which included five hundreds), during this phase. Gambhir has had a memorable year with efforts of 206 against Australia at Delhi, and a match-saving ten-hour marathon innings of 137 against New Zealand at Napier being the highlights of the year.

He also scored 670 runs from twenty-one ODIs, and 177 runs from eight T20 Internationals, during this period.

Gambhir received the best cricketer of the year award from BCCI president Shashank Manohar, and said that the award is even more special for him since he has got it after his favourite player and India team-mate Virender Sehwag got it.

“Last year, Sehwag said that he was happy to receive it after his favourite player (Sachin) had got it. Now I am happy to receive it after my favourite player (Sehwag),” he said. “It is great to be part of such a great team,” Gambhir said.

BCCI also gave out special awards in the form of mementos to batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar (for completing two decades of international cricket) and Rahul Dravid (for taking the most number of catches).

Among other winners Ranji Trophy heroes Rajinder Goel and Amarjit Kaypee, the highest wicket-taker (640 wickets) and scorer (7623 runs) respectively in the first seventy-five seasons of the biggest domestic tournament (1934-35 to 2008-09), were also felicitated, along with 38-time title-winners Mumbai.

In the newly created category of “Best Umpire”, Amish Saheba, who is also a member of the ICC’s International Umpires’ Panel, walked away with the honours.

The other award winners were:

Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai) – Madhavrao Scindia Award for scoring the maximum runs in 2008-09 Ranji Trophy – Trophy and cheque for Rs. 1 lakh.

Dhawal Kulkarni and Ravindra Jadeja: Madhavrao Scindia Award for taking the maximum number of wickets in 2008-09 Ranji Trophy.

Related News Headlines

• No Related Post

Cricketain Latest

• Sachin, Dhoni, Sehwag in race for ICC awards
• No-ball row: Sangakkara takes full responsibility
• BCCI will not pursue no-ball matter with SLC
• BCCI denies compelling fatigued cricketers to play
• Bowlers in desperate need of a break: MS Dhoni
• Yuvraj out with dengue, Nehra uncertain for Sri Lanka ODI
• “Pakistan players should be allowed to play in IPL 4”
• ECB asks Pietersen to stay away from Lalit Modi
• Munaf Patel called up as cover for Ishant
• Final squads for CLT20 announced, Flintoff not in CSK squad