Magical night of rewards and retorts

KOCHI, October 3: The men and the milestones. It was an occasion to celebrate 75 years of Indian cricket, and some of the country's greatest achievers in the game. The 10th Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence was as much a night for the game's royalty as it was for the glitterati. Bright lights, designer clothes, speeches and cheers was the order of the evening.
The game's legends were in full attendance.Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, EAS Prasanna and BS Chandrashekar, along with present cricketers Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and a few youngsters lit up the occasion. In order to recognise cricketers' contributions, the event was slotted into six eras: 1932-47, 1947-61, 1961-71, 1971-81, 1981-97 and 1997-2006.
CK Nayudu, known for his aggressive batting style, was named the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the first era, from 1932-47. The award was received by his daughter Chandra Nayudu. "It is indeed an honour," she said.
She took an extra moment to laud Dhoni and his brigade for winning the World Twenty20, adding: "Dhoni's batting resembles my father's batting. He too is a very tough cricketer, a man with brain and brawn."
Vinoo Mankad was nominated for the second era, from 1947-61. His son Atul received the award on his behalf. Mankad was the first Indian cricketer to complete 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in Tests. For the 1961-71 era, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was the choice. Sunil Gavaskar was the easy choice for the 1971-81 era, the first batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Kapil Dev, who was not present on the occasion, was selected for 1981-1997.
The most recent period (1997-2006) was shared by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
Indian Test captains - Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Singh Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - were also honoured. Ganguly was awarded the Best Indian captain.
The high-point of the function was the felicitation of woman cricketer Jhulan Goswami, who had earlier bagged the ICC Player of the Year award for women cricketers. Castrol instituted a special award, the Outstanding Indian Cricketer of the Year for women cricketers, from this year. Goswami was the first recipient.