Mumbai, Oct 31: Sachin Tendulkar bagged the Ceat player of the World Cup award for his brilliant show in the cricket`s showpiece event in South Africa early this year. Tendulkar, who received the award from Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and former India stumper Farrok Engineer at a glittering function here, chose the moment to reveal how disappointing it was to see the reaction of the public back home after the Indian team`s defeat at the hands of Australia in the league stage of 2003 World Cup. "Probably that disappointment made us come together and play well in the remaining matches which ultimately brought us to the final," he said. The award ceremony started off with Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting, the winner of Ceat International batsman of the year award, receiving the trophy from former Indian captain Ajit Wadekar and film actress Poonam Dhillon. Virender Sehwag got the best fielder award from film star Jackie Shroff and former Test star and TV commentator Sanjay Manjrekar while Ponting had to come on stage again to receive the Ceat international cricketer of the year award from none other than cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar. Ceat Max best match winning performance award was given away to Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh by former Indian stumper and the chairman of the selection committee Syed Kirmani.
Bureau Report