NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Tendulkar, again...

An eventful evening of celebration and camaraderie just about describes the Castrol Awards nite, held on the lush outfield of the Brabourne Stadium, Thursday night.

The guest list was a wonderful blend of cricketing luminaries of the past, present and future -- and the stars took full advantage, mixing with their peers, tripping down memory lane.

If there was a cricketing ignoramus in there somewhere, he was left in little doubt of the achievements of the various awardees. Between compere Harsha Bhogle's eulogies and the huge screens set on either side of the dais that flashed footage from actual match play, the audience had a fair idea of the kind of accomplishments the awardees were being honoured for.

The good thing about this particular award -- in fact, this is what marks it out from the likes of the Pepsi and Amul ratings -- is that it gave recognition to players on the up and coming list. To my mind, this is the kind of encouragement the stars of tomorrow need, to push themselves to even greater heights of excellence, and it is to the credit of Castrol that such encouragement was provided here, sans stint.

Thus, though most may disagree with my assessment, the highlight of the evening for me was the moment when Jyoti Yadav, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and Amit Pagnis were invited to the dais to collect their awards.

As the youngsters walked up to the dais, to the accompaniment of thunderous music that seemed to have been selected just for the occasion, their progress was lit up by the flashbulbs of photographers -- something that must have come as overwhelming to the young hopefuls.

Interestingly, the organisers ensured that clippings of the exploits of the three youngsters were flashed on screen, so that those guests who hadn't seen Yadav, Sodhi and Pagnis perform could do so now, even if only in capsule form.

Uttar Pradesh batsman Jyoti Yadav walked away with the coveted Young Cricketer of the Year award for 1997-'98 -- no less than senior national coach Anshuman Gaekwad and junior coach Krishnamachari Srikkanth selecting him for the honour from a list of 24 nominees all under 21 years of age, whose performances on the domestic circuit were evaluated.

Four other nominees for the award -- Amit Pagnis (Mumbai), Mohammed Kaif (Uttar Pradesh), Nikhil Haldipur (Bengal) and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (Punjab) -- received the Most Promising Cricketer Award carrying trophies and Rs 25,000 each.

To no one's surprise, Sachin Tendulkar added another award to what must be an overflowing showcase when he took the Indian Cricketer of the Year award -- which carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, plus a trophy -- from Michael Dearden, chief executive, Castrol International.

Modest as always, Sachin in his acceptance speech thanked his team-mates, pointing out that without their support, he would never have been able to achieve all that he had -- now here, I thought, is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Sachin said that the season now coming to an end must rank as the best cricketing year he has had, in a career that begain 1989 in Pakistan. Quizzed by Harsha Bhogle about his next target, Sachin reverse swept the query by saying that he preferred not to speak of his personal goals, and added that he and his team mates had only one collective goal just now and that was to win the World Cup in England next year, with the blessings of his countrymen.

Deafening applause greeted that statement, and continued for long as Sachin posed with the trophy. Harsha, in the background, quipped that while the trophy looked rather heavy, it was nothing compared to the weight of Sachin's accomplishments on the cricket field.

The award was determined after awarding points to each Indian cricketer, for each performance. The top five, who emerged as nominees -- Tendulkar being picked from this short list -- were Mohammed Azharuddin, Anil Kumble, Saurav Ganguly and Javagal Srinath, besides Sachin himself.

In order to give you an idea of the top talent in the country, follows the shortlist of junior cricketers who were nominated from each zone:

East Zone: Rajiv Kumar (Bihar), Shiv Sundar Das (Orissa), Nikhil Haldipur (Bengal), Sanjay Raul (Orissa), Abdul Masood (Bengal).

West Zone: Amit Pagnis, Rajesh Pawar (both Mumbai), Niraj Patel (Gujarat), Kunal Hazare (Baroda).

North Zone: Reetinder Singh Sodhi (Punjab), Shafiq Khan (Haryana), Mithun Manhas, Amit Bhandari, Virender Sehwag (all Delhi)

South Zone: Y Venugopal Rao (Andhra), Manohar Daniel, Rajasekhar Shambal (both Karnataka), Hemang Badani (Tamil Nadu), Sreekumar Nair (Kerala)

Central Zone: Mohammed Kaif, Jyoti Yadav, Arun Solanki (all Uttar Pradesh), Sanjay Pandey (Madhya Pradesh), Kulamani Parida (Railways).

The awards were the brainchild of Professional Management Group, the company fronted by Sumedh Shah in tandem with Sunil Gavaskar. And yes, Sunny was present, playing the gracious host throughout the function.