With so much cricket being played continuously right across the world, it was surprising that the only awards that existed were for cricket played in a particular country. For instance the Wisden Awards for cricket played in England, UBX New Zealand Cricketer of the Year award and Mafatlal award for the Indian Cricketer of the Year. In Sri Lanka, we have our own Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award.
The CEAT Cricketing Rating ranks the world's best cricketers on the basis of their performances in one day internationals as well as Test matches. This rating system has been devised after extensive discussions with ex-cricketers, statisticians and cricket journalists. The system is overseen by three cricketing legends Clive Lloyd, Ian Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar. Performances are judged over a period of 12 months, from 1 May to 30 April - and the player with the maximum points is declared CEAT International Cricketer of the year. Last year's award was won by our own Sanath Jayasuriya.
This system of awards has now been extended to a team as well. The CEAT Team of the Year 1997/98 was Australia.
The method of rating players and teams is entirely objective and is based on a system of allocating points for achieving certain standard of performance at international level.
Cricketer of the Year Award
CEAT System of Evaluation Points System
Batting
A fifty in an innings - 1 point, Every 25 runs thereafter in that particular innings - 1 point, A century in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus, A double century in an innings - 6 additional points as bonus.
Bowling
Two wickets in an innings - 1 point, Every subsequent wicket in that particular innings - 1 point, five wickets in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus, Ten wickets in a match - 6 additional points as bonus.
Fielding
Every catch - 1 point, Five catches in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus.
Wicketkeeping
Two dismissals in an innings - 1 point, every subsequent dismissal in that particular innings - 1 point each, Five dismissals in an innings - 3 additional points as bonus.
Aside from the points earned by each player, the three adjudicators, Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Chappell and Clive Lloyd will be given the batting and bowling of all the players every month. As the cricketing year progresses the Ceat Efficiency Quotient (CEQ) will be added to the judging criteria. The CEQ will be obtained by dividing the number of points earned by the number of innings played. For eg: if two players have earned 100 points but Player 'A' has played 10 innings and Player 'B' 5 innings, the CEQ of Player 'A' will be 10 and that of Player 'B' will be higher at 20. The player with the higher Efficiency quotient will obviously get a preference in the final selection.
The award carries a cash prize of half a million Indian rupees.
Cricket Team of the Year
CEAT system of Evaluation Points System
Test match
Outright win - 6 points for home win, 9 points for away win, Tie - 3 points each, Defeat - no points, Series win - 2 bonus points.
One-Day game
Win - 2 points, Tie - 1 point, Abandoned match - no points.
Series win - Bonus points for Series/Tournament wins will be based on the No. of countries participating in the event. For e.g. Two teams = 2 points, Triangular = 3 points, Quadrangular = 4 points and so on. World Cup = 12 points.
The final selection of the International Cricket Team will be done by the three architects of this scheme. Ian Chappell, Clive Lloyd and Sunil Gavaskar. Aside from the total number of points earned by each team the judges will take into account the ratio of Test matches to One Days played, the ratio of home and away series, the quality of the opposition, the number of matches played etc.
The award carries a cash prize of one million Indian rupees.