When one has to go through a roller-coaster of emotions, highs and lows, stress and jubilation, a slight amount of motivation in the form of an award can act as a symbol of reassurance. That reassurance is exactly what Castrol aims to give a select section of cricketers from a particular nation, "These are the only awards given away in India specifically for Indian cricketers consistently, since it was launched in 1998," says Dilnaz Anklesaria, Associate Vice President of Corporate Communications for Castrol.
Apart from giving a cricketer reassurance, an award also recognizes the contribution made by him to the game, hence it isn't just enough to felicitate any cricketer. The right man needs to be awarded and herein lies the real challenge. Dilnaz points out exactly how Castrol overcomes that hurdle, "The most unique bit about these awards is the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year award. That is selected on a two-tier basis. The first tier is based on a robust point ranking system, where the performances of Indian cricketers in ODIs and Tests are put together. The top five are then shortlisted as the nominees for the award, and in the second stage all the Indian cricketers who have played either one Test or five ODIs are asked to vote for their choice."
Statistics alone cannot reveal the true success of a cricketer and that is why it becomes imperative to have a system of voting, just to add a qualitative aspect. "A player could have scored a triple century against a team that is not so difficult, whereas a hundred scored against say powerful team like Australia is more valued," adds Dilnaz.
There are a few points of debate though, in the latest edition of the Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence. Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the best batsman of the year, Tests and ODIs included, for the 2011 season. Now in that calendar year he did score a fair amount of runs in Tests, 756 to be precise, but got just one century. What's more startling is the fact that he played just 11 ODIs, most of which came during the World Cup, and scored 513 runs. Virat Kohli on the other hand played 34 ODIs and scored 1381 runs, including four centuries and eight half centuries. Add Sachin's total runs scored in both formats in that year and it still falls short of what Kohli has managed in just one format.
Obviously there will be a side that says Virat didn't play much Tests, but he didn't stay out of the format by choice. Tendulkar on the other hand chose not to play in the ODIs. So would it not have made more sense to give it to a player who served his team without feeling the need to dedicate time for his personal life (not that there is anything wrong in taking time out for oneself)? Besides, Kohli would surely be better served with the award at this stage in his life than Tendulkar. Think about it, who is in greater need of reassurance, a man who has achieved it all or a man who has just embarked on a journey?
Another thing that seemed to be neglected was the achievement of Indian cricketers in something that is very Indian, domestic cricket. R.Ashwin while collecting his award said, "People don't really take notice of first class cricket." Sadly, that isn't far from being true and that remained to be true at the award function as well. There was no award for a domestic cricketer of the year, which meant that household names like Subramanium Badrinath and Wasim Jaffer went unnoticed. Names that have certainly contributed a lot to Indian cricket, albeit at the domestic level. Dilnaz, however, did show a glimmer of hope, "We are not looking at domestic cricket awards. We are looking at Indian players who have played at the international level. But that is not to say that we might not have something like that in the future, every year we have been adding awards and this is something we could look at."
When one talks of cricketing excellence then it surely means excellence of the sport as well and that is something which cannot be done without the presence of the men officiating the game. Unfortunately there aren't too many awards for umpires and this occasion was going to be no different. "The lifetime achievement award can be given to anyone who has contributed to the game of cricket. It could be a journalist, a cricketer or an umpire, so there is nothing to stop us from recognizing that," said Dilnaz. Those lines did sound reasonable at first, but on hindsight there appeared to be a loophole. An umpire has a horribly difficult job in the middle and needs to put in hours of concentration to pass judgements over the course of the game, surely he deserves an exclusive spot. Surely there needs to be an award dedicated purely to umpires and he definitely does enough to get one every year rather than after an entire lifetime.
As of now the Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence can have a few additions, however, it still is a noble idea and it does give Indian cricketers the recognition they deserve. After all, international cricket can be one hell of a challenge and Indian cricketers need to be rewarded for putting in their best at the highest level. Let's just hope that the silver screen cricketers slowly get their due as well.
