Mumbai shining at BCCI Annual awards

It was a case of 'Mumbai shining' at the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Annual Naman awards, which were held in a five-star hotel in Mumbai on Saturday night. While the BCCI conferred the CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award on Sachin Tendulkar, India's Test batsman Sarfaraz Khan received the 'Best International Debut' among men for his quickfire fifties (62 & 68 not out) against against England in the Rajkot Test-his maiden Test match- in February 2024. Sarfaraz also scored 150 against New Zealand in the Bengaluru Test in Nov last year. Currently, Sarfaraz is out due to a rib injury.

Off-spinning all-rounder Tanush Kotian received the Lala Amarnath Award for the 'Best All-Rounder in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy'. Kotian, who was called up by India for the final two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia recently, played a pivotal role in Mumbai's Ranji Trophy title triumph last year-their first in seven years. He was awarded the 'Player of the Tournament' prize for his outstanding all-round performance, which included 502 runs at an average of 41.83 and 29 wickets at an average of 16.96.

An all-time great of the game, Tendulkar featured in 200 Tests, 463 ODIs and one T20I for India, and went on to score more than 34,000 runs across formats. He was part of India’s 2011 World Cup-winning team, and in his illustrious career, Tendulkar has also been the recipient of the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in the country.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) was honoured for being the 'Best Association in domestic cricket.' In March last year, Mumbai had won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time and followed it up with the Irani Cup title in October, and the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy in December.

Another Mumbai cricketer won the laurels, though while playing for Mizoram in the Plate League, is the talented Agni Chopra, son of famous film producer/director Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Chopra won the ‘Madhavrao Scindia Award’ for being the highest run-getter in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy in the Plate League, scoring a staggering 939 runs in six matches@78.25, with three hundreds and three fifties.