Castrol Awards for cricketers presented in Kochi

Colonel C K Nayudu, known as the 8216;Shahenshah8217; of Indian cricket, was nominated as Castrol Indian Cricketer for the era 1932-47, and the award was received by his daughter Chandra Nayudu.

The awardee for 1947-61 was Vinoo Mankad, the first Indian to complete the 8216;double8217; of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test cricket. His son Atul received the award.

8216;Tiger8217; Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi received the 8216;Best Indian Cricketer Award8217; for 1961-71.

Sunil Gavaskar, the first batsman to score 10,000 Test runs and Kapil Dev, the first Indian to take 400 Test wickets, won the awards for 1971-81 and 1981-97 respectively.

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, who dominating Indian cricket and the Castrol awards since their inception in 1997, shared the award for the sixth era. They have won the the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the year awards five and four times respectively.

A special trophy was presented to Sourav Ganguly for being 8216;India8217;s most successful captain8217; in Test cricket.

Cricketer Jhulan Goswami announced Castrol8217;s intention to start a special category for 8216;outstanding Castrol Indian cricketer of the year award for women cricketers8217;.

Goswami was a recipient of a special Castrol award for outstanding performance in 2006. She had also recently won the ICC Player of the Year Award for women cricketers.

Several of the contemporary heroes 8212; such as Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Zaheer Khan and Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his Twenty20 World Champions 8212; were present on the occasion.

Also there at Wednesday night8217;s function were yesteryear stars Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Bishen Singh Bedi, Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, E A S Prasanna and B S Chandrasekhar.