Sunil Gavaskar feels that worthy choices were made for the BCCI cricket awards

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar congratulated the three-member committee (Ramchandra Guha, Diana Edulji and N. Ram) for selecting left-arm spinners Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel for the C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, Shanta Rangaswamy for the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award, and V.V. Kumar and the late Ramakant Desai for the Special Awards.

While Shivalkar, Goel and Shanta will receive a citation and Rs 25 lakh each, families of Kumar and Desai will receive a citation and Rs 15 lakh each. The annual awards function will be held at Bengaluru on March 8. According to Gavaskar, the choices for the recipients of the award’s reflects the deep analysis that went into the decision-making.

“Congratulations to the committee that chose this year’s winners and special awards. The choice reflects the sound thinking that went into the decision making. All the winners are special cricketers who gave so much to Indian cricket and made it so much enjoyable. Their skills were absolutely terrific, and watching them in action was an absolute delight,” Gavaskar said.

However, the Little Master also hinted regret about failing to convince the selectors to pick Goel and Paddy for the Indian National team when he (Gavaskar) was the captain. In a statement emailed to The Hindu, Gavaskar said: “One of the regrets I have is that, as the then captain of the Indian team, I could not convince my fellow selectors to pick Goel saab and ‘Paddy’ to play for India.

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“They were born in the same era as the greatest left-arm bowler I have seen, Mr. Bishan Singh Bedi. Else they too would have played plenty of Tests for India.

Gavaskar also hoped that on the day of the awards, the winners are presented their awards not just by the administrators, but also by the distinguished former players, to make it even more memorable for the awardees.