The Hindu : Sport : Down memory lane

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Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Sport

Down memory lane

Principal Correspondent

‘Dhoni bats like my dad Nayudu’

— Photo: PTI

STEALING THE SPOTLIGHT: Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid with their Castrol Cricketing Excellence Awards.

KOCHI: Some of the greats of Indian cricket relived their golden moments at the 10th Castrol Awards for

Cricketing Excellence at the Le Meridian here on Tuesday night. A few bared their hearts, some let their guard down.

“The greatest player I bowled to was Sobers. It was a delight to get punished by him,” confessed Bishen Singh Bedi, a member of India’s famous spin quartet. “It was a treat to watch him play.”

Chandra, the daughter of the late C.K. Nayudu who led India in its first-ever Test in 1932, said the new captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni reminded her a lot of her father.

“I think Dhoni plays the way my father used to play. Both want to hit big sixes. There are a lot of similarities between dad’s captaincy and Dhoni’s too. Dhoni proves to be a shrewd captain like my dad," said Chandra.

“But there is one dissimilarity...my dad was more of a commander, he commanded obedience, while Dhoni seems more like a companion.”

The Castrol awards are given to outstanding performers of the year every year but this time, they celebrated 75 years of Indian Test cricket, this being the landmark year.

Sourav the best

Sourav Ganguly beat many greats to carry home India’s most successful Test captain award. The 75 years were dived into six eras with Col. Nayudu being named as the cricketer of the first, 1932 to 1947. His daughter Chandra received the award.

Vinoo Mankad, the first Indian to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 runs in Tests, was adjudged the best in the second (1947-61) and it was received by his son Atul. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (winner, 1961-71) could not make it to the function while Sunil Gavaskar, the first batsman to score 10,000 runs, received it for 1971-1981 and Kapil Dev (1981-97) won it for the next.

“Tiger could anticipate what I wanted to do all the time. And if my bowling was not going well, he’d look at me with a look which said, ‘look son, pull up your socks and do well’,” said the great spinner Prasanna, praising Pataudi’s captaincy.

“Kapil couldn’t come because he is busy playing golf,” said the lively Harsha Bhogle, who compered the show.

Tons of runs

Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar shared the award for the sixth era, 1997 to 2006. “How many runs is that walking up,” said Bhogle when the two went up to receive the awards.

“Beating England in England recently was one of my most memorable moments,” said Tendulkar. He spoke about the new brand of cricket the youngsters play, saying, “it’s definitely a lot quicker, a lot faster and there are more big shots.”

The Indian team which won the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa recently was honoured but Dhoni missed the function. Sreesanth and Dinesh Karthik were among the few from the victorious team who turned up. Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Gundappa Viswanath and B.S. Chandrasekhar were among the other stars present.

“These cricketers have provided unprecedented moments of joy for millions of Indians, Castrol is proud to recognise their outstanding achievements,” said Naveen Kshatriya, MD, Castrol India.

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