BCCI institutes Dilip Sardesai award for best player

Mumbai, July 12 (UNI) The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a Dilip Sardesai Special Award for the best Indian player for all India West Indies Test series hereafter.

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has also instituted a Dilip Sardesai Scholarship to send one Mumbai under-19 cricketer to the Australian Cricket Academy, every year for a one-month training.

A decision to this effect was communicated through a message sent by BCCI President, Sharad Pawar at a condolence meeting organised jointly by the Mumbai Cricket Association and the Cricket Club of India (CCI).

Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat commiserated with India's cricket fraternity and said that the Goa Cricket Association would name a cricket stand, at its new stadium, in memory of the legendary cricketer.

The CCI, on its part, has decided to induct a permanent net in Sardesai's name at the Brabourne stadium. Besides, it has named a special prawn curry dish which will be called the Dilip Sardesai Prawn Curry; the new dish will be part of the restaurant's menu.

Sardesai was known to be an avid food lover.

''It's only in the last ten days that I realised how popular he was and how many lives he touched,'' said Dilip Sardesai's son Rajdeep Sardesai.

''Waiters at the CCI told me that he would be missed for his regular breakfast at 0730 hrs. Industrialists and politicians always turn up at such times, but it is the small people that count. And that for my father was always important''.

Ex-cricketers Ajit Wadekar and Nari Contractor shared several interesting anecdotes from Sardesai's playing days.

Dilip Sardesai, fondly referred to as Indian cricket's Renaissance Man, was the architect of India's series win in the West Indies and England in 1970-71. He breathed his last on July 2, 2007, following multiple organ failure.

UNI