Tendulkar, Dravid and Gambhir to Get BCCI Awards

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid will receive special mementos, while Gautam Gambhir will be rewarded for an exceptional year in international cricket at the annual BCCI Awards Ceremony on December 6.

While Tendulkar will be honoured for completing 20 years in international cricket, Dravid would be felicitated for creating a world record in the number of catches held in Tests on at the Cricket Club of India, BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan announced.

Opener Gambhir, who is continuing his terrific form from last year in the current Test rubber against Sri Lanka, will receive the Polly Umrigar Award and Rs five lakh for being India's best international cricketer of the year.

The Delhi left-hander scored 1269 runs (including five hundreds) from eight Tests at an average of 84.6 per innings.

Gambhir's most memorable efforts were 206 against Australia at Delhi and 137 against New Zealand at Napier. He also scored 670 runs from twenty-one ODIs, and 177 runs from eight Tewnty20 Internationals during this phase.

The prestigious C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award would be conferred to Mohinder Amarnath, a key member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team.

Mumbai, winners of the national championship for a whopping 38 occasions, would be honoured with a memento for being the most successful team in the competition.

Among the other award winners are: Mumbai captain Wasim Jaffer, for emerging as the highest scorer in Ranji Trophy in the 2008-09 season, his teammate Dhawal Kulkarni and Saurashtra's Ravindra Jadeja, who were jointly the top wicket takers in the championship.

The BCCI has constituted a new annual award for the 'Best Umpire' and the first recipient would be Amish Saheba.

The complete list of award winners:

• C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement award - Mohinder Amarnath (Trophy and cheque for Rs 15 lakh).
• Polly Umrigar award (India's most successful international cricketer of the year) - Gautam Gambhir (Trophy and cheque for Rs 5 lakh).
• Special awards: Rahul Dravid for surpassing Mark Waugh's record tally of 181 Test catches and becoming the most successful 'catcher' in Tests - Memento.
• Sachin Tendulkar for completing two decades of international cricket - Memento.
• Madhavrao Scindia Award (highest scorer in the Ranji Trophy in 2008-09)  Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai) (Trophy and cheque for Rs 1 lakh).
• Madhavrao Scindia Award (highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy in 2008-09) Dhawal Kulkarni (Mumbai) and Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra) (Trophy and cheque for Rs 1 lakh each).
• Best overall performance in 2008-09 Mumbai Cricket Association and Punjab Cricket Association - Trophy.
• M A Chidambaram Trophy (best under-16 cricketer of 2008-09) Chirag Khurana (Maharashtra CA)- Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000.
• M A Chidambaram Trophy (best under-19 cricketer of 2008-09) Harpreet Singh (MPCA) - Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000.
• M A Chidambaram Trophy (best under-22 cricketer of 2008-09) Neelkanth Das (CAB) - Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000.
• M A Chidambaram Trophy (best senior woman cricketer of 2008-09 Reema Malhotra (DDCA)- Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000.
• M A Chidambaram Trophy (best junior woman cricketer of 2008-09 Poonam Raut (MCA)- Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000.
• Best Umpire of 2008-09 Amish Saheba - Trophy and cheque for Rs 50,000
• Ranji Trophy Platinum Jubilee 1934-35 to 2008-09 - Rajinder Goel (highest wicket-taker - 640 wickets) - Memento.
• Amarjeet Kaypee (highest run aggregate - 7,623 runs) - Memento.
• Mumbai (most successful team - 38 wins in 75 years) - Memento.