Virat Kohli & R Ashwin Bag Top Awards At BCCI Awards 1

Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin were presented with the Polly Umrigar award and Dilip Sardesai awards respectively at the BCCI’s Annual Awards ceremony in Bengaluru on Wednesday (February 8).

The India skipper, who was first bestowed with the honour in 2011-12 and then in 2014-15, has now become the first player to win the award three times. The right-handed batsman bagged the award after enjoying a highly fruitful 2015-16 season with the bat.

Speaking after receiving the award, he said:“It’s been quite unbelievable, the last 10-12 months. As cricketers, you always have breakthrough years. Starting late 2015 to end of 2016… probably I could recall when I get older as the breakthrough as my career,” Kohli said. “All the hard work, all the training, all the sacrifices came together nicely.

“[The achievement] couldn’t have been possible without the help of my teammates throughout. Sometimes, when you don’t do well, is when champion players in your side step up. That’s why we are the top side in the world at the moment. It’s a great honour receiving this for the third time,” added Kohli.

Kohli further said he was never distracted by his haters and believes it has played an important role in his success.

“Along the way, early in my career, there have been people who have doubted the way I’ve gone about my game. Even now there are doubters and haters are all around, but one thing is for sure that I’ve always believed in myself,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ashwin has now become the first player to receive the Dilip Sardesai award twice, having previously won it in 2011. The world number one spinner had a phenomenal season with the ball that saw him winning the ICC Player of the Year award. The Tamil Nadu ace was honoured for his performance in the West Indies last year. He picked up 17 wickets in four Tests apart from scoring two hundreds.

“Most of what we’ve done through the season culminated in the West Indies. We had a team meeting in this very hotel before we left for the West Indies and Virat said one thing: ‘If this team can achieve something special, it’s because of the fact that we can create some great memories’,” Ashwin said after winning the award.

“We prepared a charter here. Our coach [Anil Kumble] is also here. When we embarked on that particular tour, everything was happy. It was a great start. We created more memories than playing great cricket there.

“With regards to the love affair against West Indies… I think sometimes when you step on to the field and you know that you’ve done well against a team, the edges also don’t carry to the fielders,” Ashwin added.

Ashwin also paid tribute to spin legends Bishan Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna who were among the attendees.

“I just heard the numbers of Mr. Prasanna and Mr. Bedi and I think I’ll have to add my gully cricket wickets if I have to get near them. Those are like insane numbers. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get there,” said the 30-year old.

“But I mean, the stories of Mr. Prasanna getting the ball to hang in the air and him actually using a rope to get the ball to dip on the batsman are some sort of a folklore in India. To actually carry that tradition forward is a great honour for me,” concluded Ashwin.

BCCI also honoured  Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar with the Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award while Shantha Rangaswamy became the first woman recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Here is the full list of awardees:

AWARD WINNER
Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award Rajinder Goel Padmakar Shivalkar
Lifetime Achievement Award For Women Shantha Rangaswamy
BCCI Special Award V.V Kumar Late Ramakant Desai
Polly Umrigar Award Virat Kohli
Dilip Sardesai Award (Best Performance in a bilateral series) R. Ashwin (tour of WI 2016)
Lala Amarnath Award For Best All-Rounder In Ranji Trophy Jalaj Saxena
Lala Amarnath Award For Best All-Rounder In Domestic Limited-Overs Competitions Axar Patel
Madhavrao Scindia Award – Highest Scorer In Ranji Trophy Shreyas Iyer
Madhavrao Scindia Award – Highest Wicket-Taker In Ranji Trophy Shahbaz Nadeem
M.A. Chidambaram Trophy – Highest Scorer In (U23) Col. C K Nayudu Trophy Jay Bista
M.A. Chidambaram Trophy – Highest Wicket-Taker In (U23) Col. C K Nayudu Trophy Satyajeet Bachhav
NKP Salve Award – Highest Scorer In (U19) Cooch Behar Trophy Arman Jaffer
NKP Salve Award – Highest Wicket-Taker In (U19) Cooch Behar Trophy Ninad Rathva
Raj Singh Dungarpur Award – Highest Scorer In (U16) Vijay Merchant Trophy Abhishek Sharma
Raj Singh Dungarpur Award- Highest Wicket-Taker In (U16) Vijay Merchant Trophy Abhishek Sharma
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award – Best Woman Cricketer (Sr) Mithali Raj
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award – Best Woman Cricketer (Jr) Deepti Sharma
Best Umpire In Domestic Cricket Nitin Menon
Best Performance In Domestic Tournaments Mumbai Cricket Association