The last era was the decade of the Castrol Awards for Cricketing Excellence and appropriately, two individuals who have dominated Indian cricket and the Castrol Awards since their inception in 1997, shared the award for the sixth era-- Rahul Dravid (five-time winner of the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year) and Sachin Tendulkar (four-time winner of the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year).
One of the high points of the evening was the felicitation of India's Test captains Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, all members of this elite club who were present on the occasion, were honoured for their outstanding service to Indian cricket.
A special trophy was presented to Ganguly for being India's most successful captain in Test cricket.
A pleasant surprise during the evening was the announcement by Jhulan Goswami, of Castrol's intention to start a special category for Outstanding Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year award for women cricketers. Jhulan Goswami was a recipient of a special Castrol Award for Outstanding performance in 2006. More recently, she won the ICC Player of the Year Award for Women Cricketers.
The ceremony culminated with a leap into the future. The Castrol Outstanding Achievement Award was given away this year to the Indian team for winning the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.
Twenty20 World Championship
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