Castrol Celebrates Excellence in Cricket

Naveen Kshatriya gives award to Rahul Dravid

Release date: 14 December 2006

The eighth Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence for the period 1st October 2004 – 31st December 2005, were given away at a glittering function held in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday.

The Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence commemorate the achievements of Indian cricketers – past, present and future. This year, for the first time since the inception of the Awards in 1997, the Awards are being held outside India.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Naveen Kshatriya, Regional Vice President, Transcon Lubricants and Managing Director of Castrol India Limited, said “its been 15 years since South Africa returned to international cricket and we thought it would be a nice way to commemorate this occasion by having the awards in South Africa. After all, India was the first country to welcome South Africa back to international cricket. India hosted the first series played by South Africa on its return to international cricket in 1991”.

In view of the special occasion, the Awards evening kicked off with a special citation and award to Dr. Ali Bacher, former South African captain and the first Managing Director of the United Cricket Board of South Africa that was constituted in 1991. The award was received on Dr. Bacher’s behalf by his son David Bacher.

A special memento to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of South Africa’s return to International cricket was presented to the current South African team. The memento was received by Shaun Pollock on behalf of the South African team.

Special Castrol cricketing awards were also given away to four South African cricketers who had best performances against India during the last fifteen years. The awards included :

The Castrol Best Batting Performance Award – Gary Kirsten
The Castrol Best Bowling Performance Award – Allan Donald
The Castrol Best All Rounder Award – Shaun Pollock
The Castrol Best Fielder Award – Jonty Rhodes

This was followed by the Castrol Cricketing Awards for Indian cricketers for their performance during the year 2004-2005. Several new awards were also introduced this year to acknowledge individual performances in batting and bowling and these were won by:

Castrol Best Batting Performance in Test Matches - Rahul Dravid for his 110 and 135 v/s Pakistan in March 2005

Castrol Best Bowling Performance in Test Matches - Anil Kumble for his 3/45 and 7/63 v/s Pakistan in March 2005

Castrol Best Batting Performance in ODIs - Mahendra Singh Dhoni – for his 183 runs v/s Sri Lanka in October 2005

Castrol Best Bowling Performance in ODIs - Sachin Tendulkar for his 5/50 v/s Pakistan in April 2005

Castrol Most Promising Newcomer - Mahendra Singh Dhoni – for his rousing performance in his debut year both in front and behind the wickets.

A very special moment of the evening was the felicitation of the maestro Sachin Tendulkar for his record breaking 35th Test century. The Award was fittingly presented by Sunil Gavaskar, whose record Tendulkar broke.

The function culminated with the prestigious Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year Award which was won by the Indian Captain, Rahul Dravid. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have both won this Award four times earlier, including sharing it once in 2003-2004.

The evening was compered by the inimitable Harsha Bhogle.