da 888casino： Star Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralitharan has been named the CEATInternational Cricketer of the Year 2000-01
da bet7k： Staff and Agencies10-Jun-2001* Murali and South Africa clinch CEAT awardsStar Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralitharan has been named the CEATInternational Cricketer of the Year 2000-01. Murali headed the CEATRatings with 111 points and comfortably edged out his compatriotMarvan Atapattu, who finished runner-up 16 points behind. The SriLankans completed a clean sweep of the top three positions as Murali’sskipper Sanath Jayasuriya ended third with 93 points. Jacques Kallis(87) and Sachin Tendulkar (85) took spots four and five respectively.The annual CEAT Ratings which were instituted in 1995/96 aresupervised by a panel comprising three of the game’s gray eminences,Clive Lloyd, Ian Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar. They take into accountall the cricketing action between May 1 and April 30. InterestinglySachin Tendulkar has never won the award in the six years since itsinception. His CEAT Efficiency Quotient (CEQ) of 3.04 was however thehighest among the leading contenders for the Award. Previous winnersinclude Brian Lara (1995-96), Venkatesh Prasad (1996-97), SanathJayasuriya (1997-98), Jacques Kallis (1998-99), Sourav Ganguly(1999-00).South Africa clinched the CEAT Team of the Year award with a tally of98 points, which included 57 from the 14 Tests and 41 from the 26 ODIsthey played during the year. Pakistan (1996-97), Australia (1997-98and 1999-00) and South Africa (1998-99) were the four previousrecipients.* Chinnaswamy stadium pitch being relaidThirty years after it was first laid, the square at the Chinnaswamystadium in Bangalore is being relaid. Under the supervision of GKasturi Rangan, the chairman of the pitches committee of the BCCI,work on the relaying has already begun.”The idea behind the reconstruction is to have hard, firm wickets,”says Kasturi Rangan. “We have told other associations to provide truewickets and if we make a start here, then we can set an example forthe rest to emulate,” he says. According to Kasturi Rangan, theentire surface will be playable within 50 days. In all, there will beeleven strips, one centre wicket and five wickets on either side. Thecost of the entire exercise is estimated at Rs 10 lakh.India is scheduled to play a Test match at Bangalore against Englandlate this year and the new surface is likely to provide a hard andbouncy track. Bangalore staged its first Test match against WestIndies in November, 1974.* Patel, Hazare join NCAMedium pacers Rakesh Patel of Baroda and Swapnil Hazare of Mumbai havereported at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore a couple of daysago.Patel, who was inducted into the NCA after the first set of 20 nameswas announced last month, was in the camp for the probables for thetour of Zimbabwe in Bangalore. However he was out of action for sometime due to a knee injury. which he sustained during the Ranji Trophyfinal against Railways in April. Hazare was forced to miss a month’straining at the NCA because of his college exams. The NCA will take aten day break from June 16 before the inter-zonal acadmies tournamentcommences on June 28.
