BCCI Awards: Ravi Shastri to receive lifetime achievement award, Shubman Gill to win men's cricketer honour

World Cup-winning former India all-rounder and ex-head coach Ravi Shastri will receive the prestigious lifetime achievement award in the Indian cricket board (BCCI) Awards, set to be held in Hyderabad on Tuesday, January 23. Ravi Shastri will join his former teammates Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Syed Kirmani, and Kris Srikkanth amongst others in receiving the CK Nayudu Award for lifetime achievement.

The BCCI Awards ceremony will be held for the first time since 2019 after having seen multiple delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Indian Test team and the visiting England Test side are expected to attend the ceremony, which will be graced by former cricketers from across the country.

World Cup-winning former India opener and World Cup final hero Kris Srikkanth won the CK Nayudu Award for lifetime achievement in 2019.

Apart from the lifetime achievement award, the Polly Umrigar Award for best men’s international cricketer, the best international cricketer in women’s cricket for India, best umpire and best domestic side awards are likely to be handed over by the BCCI on Tuesday.

SHUBMAN GILL SET FOR BIG HONOUR

Shubman Gill is set to receive the Polly Umrigar award for the best men’s cricketer of the year for 2023, India Today has learnt. Jasprit Bumrah won the honour in 2019, a year after making his Test debut. Gill scored 2154 runs in international cricket, most by any batter in 2023. He hit 7 hundreds, including an ODI double hundred and his maiden T20I century.

Nari Contractor, Gundappa Viswanath, Mohinder Amarnath, Salim Durani, Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Syed Kirmani, Rajinder Goel and Padmaka Shivalkar, Pankaj Roy and Anshuman Gaekwad are the recipients of the lifetime achievement award.

Ravi Shastri played 80 Tests and 150 ODIs for India, scoring 6938 runs in international cricket, including 15 hundreds. He picked 280 wickets for India at the highest level. The left-arm spinner was part of India’s World Cup triumph in 1983 and the 1985 Champions of Champions triumph.

Post his retirement, Ravi Shastri took over commentary duties and was the crisis man for the BCCI in terms of the senior national men’s team. He was the team manager in 2014-15 before he took over as the head coach in 2017 in one of the most successful stints. Shastri’s working relationship with Virat Kohli, the former captain, was much-talked-about as the two icons went on to shape India into one of the finest travelling Test teams. Under Shastri, India reached the semi-final of the ODI World Cup in 2019.

Since quitting the coaching job in 2021, Shastri has returned to the commentary box, becoming one of the most sought-after men behind the microphone.

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