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MUMBAI: Gautam Gambhir edged out his India and Delhi opening partner Virender Sehwag in a close tussle for the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award for 2008. The southpaw, who scored over 1,000 runs in Tests and ODIs in the calendar year of 2008, received a trophy and a cheque for Rupees Five Lakhs from Ravi Kirpalani ? Automotive Director and COO ? Castrol India Limited, at a glittering Award ceremony held in Mumbai today.
The Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award is decided by a two stage process. In the first stage, a performance based points system decides the top five contenders for the title. In the second stage, all Indian cricketers who have played atleast one Test match or five ODIs votes for their choice of the Castrol Indian Cricketer based on qualitative judgement, considering various facets of their performance. This year 113 cricketers sent in their votes, endorsing Gautam Gambhir as their choice for the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year 2008. The other nominees included Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.
The Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence recognise and honour the past, present and future of Indian cricket and are the only awards for Indian cricketers for performances in international cricket.
Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath, the former India captain, was the recipient of the Castrol Lifetime Achievement in Cricket Award. He received a trophy and cheque for Rupees Five lakhs from his team mate and brother in law ? another cricketing legend and a Castrol Lifetime Achievement winner himself - Sunil Gavaskar.
Youngster Ravindra Jadeja, who was the highest wicket taker in the Ranji Trophy competition in 2008 and made a breakthrough to the Indian team, won the Castrol Indian Junior Cricketer of the Year 2008.
In addition to these awards, Castrol has also instituted four new awards from 2008 :
CASTROL INDIAN TEST PLAYER OF THE YEAR ? Virender Sehwag
CASTROL INDIAN ODI PLAYER OF THE YEAR ?Mahendra Singh Dhoni
CASTROL INDIAN BOWLER OF THE YEAR ? Harbhajan Singh
CASTROL INDIAN BATSMAN OF THE YEAR ? Gautam Gambhir
The Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence also recognise Special / Outstanding performances and this year, there were two awards in this category for 2008: Sachin Tendulkar, received the Castrol Special Award for becoming the first batsman in Test history to score 12,000 runs. Rahul Dravid also received a Castrol Special Award for becoming the world record holder for the highest number of catches in test matches, surpassing Mark Waugh?s world record tally of 181 Test catches.
Ravi Kirpalani, Automotive Director and COO, Castrol India Limited, echoed the sentiments of all present at the Awards ceremony when he congratulated the Indian team for their winning performance in Sri Lanka and wished them all the best for the ICC Champion?s trophy for which the team leaves tomorrow.
