Annual BCCI Awards Ceremony to be held on Jan.11

Mumbai, Dec.26 (ANI): The seventh annual BCCI Awards Ceremony will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 11, 2014. The event will be held at the Ballroom, The Taj Land's End, Band Stand, Bandra (W), Mumbai. India's best performers in senior and junior-level cricket, at the international and domestic level, in the twelve months from 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2013, will be honoured for their achievements, at the function. Ravichandran Ashwin will be the recipient of the Polly Umrigar Award, for being India's best international cricketer of 2012-13. He took 43 wickets, inclusive of four 5WI and one 10WM, and scored 263 runs, inclusive of two fifties, from eight Tests. He also took 24 wickets from 18 ODIs, and three wickets from four T20 Internationals. The Polly Umrigar Award comprises a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 5 lakhs. The award has been won in previous years by Sachin Tendulkar (2006-07 and 2009-10), Virender Sehwag (2007-08), Gautam Gambhir (2008-09), Rahul Dravid (2010-11) and Virat Kohli (2011-12). Abhishek Nayar will receive the Lala Amarnath Award, for being the best all-rounder in the 2012-13 edition of the Ranji Trophy. He scored 966 runs @ 96.6, inclusive of three centuries and eight fifties, and 19 wickets @22.8, inclusive of one 5WI, from eleven matches, in the tournament. The award comprises a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 2.5 lakhs. The Mumbai Cricket Association, which Nayar represents, will collect the trophy for the Best Overall Performance in the 2012-13 season. The various teams representing the MCA won the Ranji Trophy, the Under-25 C.K. Nayudu Trophy, the Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, the Women's Under-19 Inter-State tournament, and finished runners-up in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy. The achievers of 2012-13 apart, Rohit Sharma will receive the Dilip Sardesai Award, for being India's best cricketer in the recent Test series against the West Indies. He scored hundreds in both Tests, and accumulated an aggregate of 288 runs. The award comprises a trophy and a cheque for Rs. 5 lakhs. A highlight of the function will be the felicitation of three former stalwarts - R.G. (Bapu) Nadkarni, Farokh Engineer and Late Eknath Solkar - for their contribution to Indian cricket. They will receive a memento and a cheque for Rs. 15 lakhs each. (ANI)