Mumbai: Star India batsman Virat Kohli was on Monday named CEAT T20 Player of the Year while former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at a glittering function attended by several past and present players in Mumbai.
England batsman Joe Root was named as the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year as well as International Batsman of the Year.
Industrialist Harsh Goenka, bollywood actress Huma Qureshi and former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar present the life time achievment CEAT Cricket Rating award to former Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar. (Photo: PTI)
India off-spinner R Ashwin won the CEAT International Bowler of the Year award while Rohit Sharma was named as the Indian Cricketer of the Year.
Kohli has been in the form of his life in the shortest format recently as he was named as Player-of-the-Tournament in the World T20 held in India earlier this year and won the orange cap for amassing the most runs of 973 in 16 matches in the just-concluded IPL-9.
Former Indian cricketers Ajit Wadekar and Vinod Kambli present the CEAT Cricket Rating special award to Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane. (Photo: PTI)
60-year-old Vengsarkar had amassed 6868 runs in 116 Tests with 17 hundreds to boot that included a hat-trick of tons in successive Test appearances at Lord’s cricket ground in England.
Vengsarkar was also a part of the 1983-World Cup winning Indian team.
Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden presents the CEAT Cricket Rating Indian Domestic Cricketer of the year award to Indian cricketer Shreyas Iyer. (Photo: PTI)
After receiving the award, Ashwin said he always strove to improve every day and would even like to bowl a full quota of maiden overs in a T20 game in the future.
“The IPL gave me the opportunity to showcase my skills. I picked up off spin at 17 which was quite late, I feel, but it was first class cricket that enabled me to keep getting better,” he said.
Former Indian cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu presents the CEAT Cricket Rating Indian Bowler of the year award to Indian cricketer R Ashwin
“I strive to keep better and one day I want to bowl four maiden overs in a T20 game,” he added.
He also said he wants to perform well as a batsman whenever given a chance. “I would like to take it with both hands whenever given the chance,” said the off-spinner.
Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden shakes a leg during the event. (Photo: PTI)
Rohit said the number of Tests that India were to play in the coming season would help them concentrate on this traditional format.
“A lot of Test cricket is coming up and preparation for one format of the game will help us,” said the classy stroke-player, who hit three centuries in ODIs in the period for which the awards were given.
Bollywood actress Huma Qureshi also performed at the glitterous event. (Photo: PTI)
“The year 2015-16 has been a good year for us. As you saw we won a Test series in Sri Lanka after a long gap and we won the Test series at home against South Africa.
“We did well in the World T20 Championship although we lost to the West Indies (in the semis). They deserved to be champions as they played well throughout the tournament,” he said.
Dance to the beats, a performance full of fun and celebration by @humasqureshi #CEATCricketAwards pic.twitter.com/zA8Lf5tWVA
— CEAT Cricket Rating (@CEAT_CCR) May 30, 2016
Rahane was given the special award for becoming the fifth Indian to score a century in each inning of a Test match. He did it in the Delhi Test match against South Africa.
Receiving the award from Sunil Gavaskar and Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises, Vengsarkar had a word of advice to Mumbai young batsman Shreyas Iyer.
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“Shreyas Iyer has done extremely well for Mumbai in the last one year in Ranji trophy. He played a brilliant innings in the Ranji Trophy final (against Saurashtra). He has not been picked in the Indian team (for the Zimbabwe and West Indies tour) which is unfortunate. I spoke to him, you have to score double hundred then nobody can drop you, you are an excellent player,” he said.
Vengsarkar also said that he enjoyed every Test, every tour and every tournament that India played during his 16 years with the national squad.
“After retirement I wanted to give something back to the game and I started a cricket academy in 1995. Lots of players who play for Mumbai in under-14, under-16 and senior level are from my academy.
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“I got three academies now including one in Pune which I started seven years ago where there was no ground at all, now there is a beautiful cricket ground and now a lot of under-14, under-16 cricketers of Maharashtra are from my academy. I am extremely happy and proud,” he added.
The award winners:
Lifetime Achievement Award – Dilip Vengsarkar
International Cricketer of the Year – Joe Root
International Batsman of the Year – Joe Root
International Bowler of the Year – R Ashwin
Test Cricketer of the Year – Kane Williamson
ODI Cricketer of the Year – Martin Guptill
T20 Player of the Year – Virat Kohli
Indian Cricketer of the Year –Rohit Sharma
Domestic Cricketer of the Year – Shreyas Iyer
Young Player of the Year – Rishabh Pant
Special Award – Ajinkya Rahane
