MUMBAI
BRIAN LARA and B.S. Chandrasekhar have little in common, apart from being unorthodox craftsmen who at times single-handedly lifted a sagging team to victory.
But on October 7, at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai, their names did belong together—both were given the lifetime achievement award. But while there was a note of gratitude in the way Chandrasekhar was honoured—Sunil Gavaskar called him India’s original match-winner and played an audio clip of him delivering the news of the award to Chandrasekhar, who couldn’t be there—there was a tinge of longing with Lara’s honour. If India had unearthed many more match winners to follow in Chandrasekhar’s footsteps, the West Indies were still looking to the Lara years as the last time they had a truly competitive Test team.
In July, Australia had bundled out the West Indies for 27 in Jamaica, following which past greats including Lara, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd were brought together for an emergency meeting to assess the way forward.
About three months later, the West Indies crumbled once again, losing to India in Ahmedabad by an innings and 140 runs. The loss reignited the debate about the fall of West Indies cricket, and Lara, who spoke to THE WEEK on the sidelines of the event, shed some light on what the emergency meeting had entailed. “The aberration of scoring 27, nobody wants to do that, but that was not the [only] issue…. There’s also an issue, of course, with franchise cricket and the way they pull some of the players away… There’s no pointing fingers at anybody, it’s just that we’ve [all] got to come together, and truly, if you have West Indies cricket at heart, you will find a way to move forward.” The West Indies take on India in the second Test on October 10 in Delhi, but it could be more of the same for a little while.
Speaking of India, a big part of the night went in celebrating the Indian team, especially in the shorter formats.
While Sanju Samson won the men’s T20I batter of the year, compatriot Varun Chakravarthy was named T20I bowler of the year. Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma, both away on World Cup duty, were given the women’s international batter and bowler awards, while Shreyas Iyer got a special memento for being the Indian with the most runs in the Champions Trophy earlier this year.
In an interaction on stage, Iyer talked about his past troubles with the short ball and how he overcame it, while Samson touched on his moving positions in the batting line-up, saying that he respected the Indian jersey too much to turn down any request made of him. He even joked that he could bat at No. 9 or bowl some left-arm spin if needed.
Changing the game: Rohit Sharma said the current success of the Indian team was the result of a long process | PTI
Samson also pointed to Rohit Sharma in the audience to say that it was the former captain who set up the formula that ended India’s 13-year ICC trophy drought—all the team had to do now was to continue doing the same things.
Rohit himself got a special memento for winning the Champions Trophy as captain, and in his speech, he noted that the current success was the result of a years-long process. “We had come so close to winning that [ICC] trophy many times, but we couldn’t get over the line. And that is where everyone decided that we need to do something different. It cannot be done by one or two people; everyone has to buy into that thought. We just carried the momentum from 2023 (ODI World Cup), even though that one game (the final) went against us. I don’t think we did many things wrong [there]. A lot of the players changed their game a little bit, did slightly uncomfortable things to make sure that the team looks good.”
Look good it did, and perhaps in the T20 format, it looks even better now as India get ready to defend their World Cup title early next year.
LIST OF WINNERS
* Lifetime achievement award Brian Lara
* Lifetime achievement award B.S. Chandrasekhar
* Men’s international cricketer Joe Root
* Exemplary leadership award Temba Bavuma
* Men’s Test batter Harry Brook
* Men’s Test bowler Prabath Jayasuriya
* Men’s ODI batter Kane Williamson
* Men’s ODI bowler Matt Henry
* Men’s T20I batter Sanju Samson
* Men’s T20I bowler Varun Chakravarthy
* Women’s international batter Smriti Mandhana
* Women’s international bowler Deepti Sharma
* Domestic cricketer Harsh Dubey
* Emerging young player Angkrish Raghuvanshi
* Memento for winning Champions Trophy as captain Rohit Sharma
* Memento for most runs by an Indian in Champions Trophy 2025 Shreyas Iyer