Ranadeb Bose bags CEAT Indian Cricket 2006-07 award

Mumbai, Feb 6 (UNI) Bengal pacer Ranadeb Bose walked away with the CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year 2006-07 at a glittering function held at the Brabourne stadium here this evening.

Bengal, who lost the Ranji Trophy final to Mumbai yesterday, however scored one over the domestic cricketing powerhouse when it came to the CEAT Domestic Cricket Awards with two awards as youngster Manoj Tewary was declared as the CEAT India batsman of the year, while Rohit Sharma another youngster from Mumbai was given the CEAT Most Promising Youngster award.

The CEAT India bowler of the Year award was bagged by Tamil Nadu's R Ashwin, while Rajinder Goel, one of the most talented players never to have played for India was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ranadeb Bose with a total of 67 points was a runaway winner with the second placed player R Ashwin and Joginder Sharma of Haryana with 44 points following him in second place.

Manoj Tewary had a tough fight on his hands beating Robin Uthappa of Karnataka by just one point. Tewary who scored a fighting 94 in Bengal's second innings in the final topped with 40 points with Uthappa a close second with 39 points.

In the fielders category Andhra wicketkeeper M S K Prasad topped the fielding honours with 12 fielding points, while B Akhil of Karnataka with 11 points came in second.

Speaking on the occasion, Sunil Gavaskar, adjudicator of the CEAT Cricket Ratings said ''domestic cricketers who are the backbone of Indian cricket are seldom recognized for their efforts. For CEAT to have taken this initiative and introduced these awards is indeed noteworthy.'' On the occasion based on the rankings for the just concluded season, CEAT announced the CEAT XI - a shadow Indian team.

The Ceat XI is as follows: Robin Uthappa (Karnataka), Pankaj Dharmani (Punjab), Manoj Tewary (Bengal), Cheteswar Pujara (Saurashtra), Mayank Tehlan (Delhi), M S K Prasad (Andhra Pradesh), Ranadeb Bose (Bengal), Ravichandran Ashwin (Tamil Nadu), Joginder Sharma (Haryana), Rajesh Pawar (Baroda), R P Singh (Uttar Pradesh).

The CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year Ranadeb Bose won Rs two lakh and a trophy, while the other winners R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tewary each won Rs one lakh and a trophy each.

Rajinder Goel received Rs one lakh as prize money for his Lifetime Achievement award.

The function was compered by Cyrus Broacha and Shonali Nagrani and had a sensational rope act by Isha Shravani of Kisna fame. The World Cup anthem to be held in West Indies from next month was also performed for the first time by the Boogie Woogie troupe.

UNI