Tendulkar retains Castrol title

Sachin Tendulkar was declared the ‘Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year 2000-2001' at the fourth annual Castrol awards ceremony in Bangalore on Monday night.

The master batsman was presented the award, comprising a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 500,000, by S.M. Datta, chairman, Castrol India ltd.

Tendulkar's performances in the Castrol Year 2000-01 (October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001) included a double hundred against Zimbabwe at Nagpur and a century in the thrilling final Test of the epic series against Australia at Chennai. Tendulkar also became the first batsman to cross the 10,000 run-mark in One-Day Internationals during the Castrol Year.

For the third time since the inception of the awards in 1997-98, Tendulkar out-voted the four other nominees for the award, the winner of which is chosen by a galaxy of former and current India Test and one-day cricketers who vote by secret ballot.

Ajit Agarkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the four other finalists in the race for the award, each received a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 50,000 from R A Savoor, chief executive and managing director, Castrol-India ltd.

Sachin won the award in 1997-98 and 1999-00. Rahul Dravid won it in 1998-99.

An audience comprising several distinguished former and current cricketers and media personalities watched Jiten Goswami (director - marketing, Castrol-India ltd) hand over the ‘Castrol Lifetime Achievement in Cricket Award’ trophy and a cheque for Rs. 500,000 to the legendary Pahlanji Ratanji 'Polly' Umrigar.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra, who won the ‘Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year’ Award, could not make it to the function. One of the nominees for this award, young Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner S. Vidyut received the Castrol Junior Cricketer ‘finalist’ award comprising a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 25,000/- from the former India wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani.

The other other ‘finalists’ were Vinayak Mane (Mumbai), Sachin Dholpure (M.P) and Mihir Diwakar (Bihar).

A highlight of the function was the felicitation of the Karnataka team of 1973-74 that halted Mumbai's 15 year-long winning streak in the Ranji Trophy and went on to win the championship for the first time. The members of the team received a watch each. The mementoes were presented to the team by Anil Kumble.

The ‘men behind the lens’ also found themselves under the spotlight for a change. The inaugural ‘Castrol Awards for Excellence in Cricket Photography’ for pictures taken during the Castrol Year, were presented in three categories, Group Action, Individual Action and Off-beat.

Santosh Bane (Times of India, Mumbai), Srikanta Sharma (Deccan Herald) and Prakash Parsekar (Mahanagar, Mumbai) were declared winners in the three categories respectively.

The awards were presented by Clyde D'Mello, associate president - BP.

Images of the awards ceremony