It’s fantastic to win Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy: Tendulkar

BANGALORE - On winning Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Cricketer of the Year 2010 here, a visibly delighted master blaster Sachin Tendulkar said that it felt “fantastic” to win the award, adding that since becoming No.1 in Test rankings, the Indian cricket team has been able to maintain its performance in the last 10 months.

“It’s fantastic to win this award. I’m really excited to have won two awards and this last season for the entire team has been really special. I think right from the start of the season when we won in Sri Lanka and I scored a hundred in the finals and from there on the season took off for us. We became number one in the Test rankings, something we all wanted to achieve and we’ve been able to maintain our performances in the last 10 months,” said Sachin Tendulkar at the glittering at the LG ICC Awards ceremony.

Tendulkar became the seventh player to win the coveted Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy after being named as the 2010 ICC Cricketer of the Year at the LG ICC Awards ceremony here on Wednesday evening.

He fought off stiff competition to take the award from fellow short-list nominees comprising Indian opener batsman Virender Sehwag of India, Hashim Amla of South Africa and England’s Graeme Swann.

The Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy was one of nine individual prizes given at this year’s LG ICC Awards.

On winning Cricketer of the Year and the LG People’s Choice Award, Tendulkar said: “To win both of these awards tonight, Cricketer of the Year and the LG People’s Choice Award, is special and it’s the game’s way of appreciating someone’s performance. It feels great to have two trophies in front of me and I am feeling very proud and happy.”

With the latest award, Tendulkar follows in the footsteps of India’s Rahul Dravid (2004), Andrew Flintoff of England and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (joint winners in 2005), Ricky Ponting of Australia (2006 and 2007), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (2008) and Mitchell Johnson (2009) to take the top award.

Congratulating Tendulkar on his winning the awards, ICC President Sharad Pawar said: “Sachin Tendulkar has been the focal point of Indian cricket now for some 20 years and over the past year his superb batting and hard work has continued to illustrate his importance in the India team batting line-up. Sachin’s statistics for the last 12 months show how worthy a winner of this accolade he is.”

During the voting period, the 37-year-old from Mumbai played in 10 Test matches, striking 1,064 runs, including six centuries, at an average of 81.84.

Tendulkar also played in 17 ODI matches in the time, smashing his way to 914 runs at an average 65.28 in a period that also included the master batsman’s record-breaking double-century against South Africa in Gwalior.

The right-handed batsman currently sits third in the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen and is 10th in the ODI rankings.

Tendulkar also featured in the ICC Test and ODI Teams of the Year as picked by the independent selection panel.

The panel was chaired by West Indies legend Clive Lloyd and included former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden, former England bowler Angus Fraser, former Zimbabwe player and England coach Duncan Fletcher and former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri.

Based on the period between 24 August 2009 and 10 August 2010, the LG ICC Awards 2010 - presented in association with FICA - take into account performances by players and officials in a remarkable period for the game.

That period includes such high-profile events as the ICC Men’s and Women’s World Twenty20 2010 in West Indies, the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 in South Africa and the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 2010 in the Netherlands, as well as several bilateral Test and ODI series.

The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its seventh year and this year is being held in Bengaluru. Previous ceremonies were held in London (2004), Sydney (2005), Mumbai (2006), Johannesburg (2007 and 2009) and Dubai (2008). (ANI)