Virat Kohli adjudged BCCI’s cricketer of the year for third time
Virat Kohli became the first player to be adjudged BCCI's Cricketer of the year (Polly Umrigar trophy) for a third time, while Ravichandran Ashwin bagged the Dilip Sardesai trophy given to India’s best cricketer in a West Indies series. The 2015-16 awards will be given in Bengaluru on March 8.
Mumbai’s Shreyas Iyer and Jharkhand’s Shahbaz Nadeem will receive the Madhavrao Scindia award for being the highest run scorer and the highest wicket-taker respectively in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season, while Madhya Pradesh's Jalaj Saxena will bag the Lala Amarnath award for being the best all-rounder.
The BCCI will also honour Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar with Lifetime achievement awards.
“Congratulations to the committee that chose this year’s winners and special awards. The choice reflects the sound thinking that went into the decision-making. All the winners are special cricketers who gave so much to Indian cricket and made it so much enjoyable," former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said in praise of the Committee's choices.
“One of the regrets I have is that, as the then captain of the Indian team, I could not convince my fellow selectors to pick Goel
“Their skills were absolutely terrific, and watching them in action was an absolute delight.”
VV Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai will be given special awards while Shantha Rangaswamy will be handed the inaugural Lifetime achievement award for women.
“As for Ramakant Desai and VV Kumar, they were such wonderful bowlers. More importantly, they were modest to the core and hardly, if ever, spoke about their times," Gavaskar said.
“VV is still with us, and I’m sure he will be as well-groomed in the evening as he always was on and off the field.
“Shantha is another deserving choice. She was a titan when she played and her deeds are written in bold letters in the history of Indian women’s cricket.
“I only hope that, on the awards evening, the winners will be presented their awards not just by the administrators, but also by the many distinguished former players who will attend for that will surely make it even more memorable for the awardees.”
The award list:
The BCCI award winners (2015-16): Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award: Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar.
BCCI Lifetime Achievement award for women: Shantha Rangaswamy.
BCCI Special awards: V.V. Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai.
Polly Umrigar award: Virat Kohli.
Dilip Sardesai award (India’s best cricketer in the West Indies series, 2016): R. Ashwin.
Lala Amarnath award (best all-rounder in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy): Jalaj Saxena (Madhya Pradesh).
Lala Amarnath award (best all-rounder in 2015-16 domestic limited-over competition): Axar Patel. (Gujarat)
Madhavrao Scindia award (highest scorer in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy): Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai).
Madhavrao Scindia award (highest wicket-taker in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy): Shahbaz Nadeem (Jharkhand).
M.A. Chidambaram Trophy (highest scorer in the u-23 Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy): Jay Bista (Mumbai).
M.A. Chidambaram Trophy (highest wicket-taker in
N.K.P. Salve award (highest scorer in the u-19 Cooch Behar Trophy): Armaan Jaffer (Mumbai).
N.K.P. Salve award (highest wicket-taker in the u-19 Cooch Behar Trophy):
Raj Singh Dungarpur award (highest scorer in the u-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy): Abhishek Sharma (Punjab).
Raj Singh Dungarpur award (highest wicket-taker in the u-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy): Abhishek Sharma (Punjab).
Jagmohan Dalmiya award [(best woman cricketer (senior)]: Mithali Raj (Railways).
Jagmohan Dalmiya award [(best woman cricketer (junior)]: Deepti Sharma (Uttar Pradesh).
Best umpire in domestic cricket: Nitin Menon.
Best performance in BCCI domestic tournaments: Mumbai Cricket Association.