* Murali and South Africa clinch CEAT awards

Star Sri Lankan spinner Muthiah Muralitharan has been named the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year 2000-01. Murali headed the CEAT Ratings with 111 points and comfortably edged out his compatriot Marvan Atapattu, who finished runner-up 16 points behind. The Sri Lankans completed a clean sweep of the top three positions as Murali's skipper Sanath Jayasuriya ended third with 93 points. Jacques Kallis (87) and Sachin Tendulkar (85) took spots four and five respectively.

The annual CEAT Ratings which were instituted in 1995/96 are supervised by a panel comprising three of the game's gray eminences, Clive Lloyd, Ian Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar. They take into account all the cricketing action between May 1 and April 30. Interestingly Sachin Tendulkar has never won the award in the six years since its inception. His CEAT Efficiency Quotient (CEQ) of 3.04 was however the highest among the leading contenders for the Award. Previous winners include Brian Lara (1995-96), Venkatesh Prasad (1996-97), Sanath Jayasuriya (1997-98), Jacques Kallis (1998-99), Sourav Ganguly (1999-00).

South Africa clinched the CEAT Team of the Year award with a tally of 98 points, which included 57 from the 14 Tests and 41 from the 26 ODIs they played during the year. Pakistan (1996-97), Australia (1997-98 and 1999-00) and South Africa (1998-99) were the four previous recipients.

* Chinnaswamy stadium pitch being relaid

Thirty years after it was first laid, the square at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore is being relaid. Under the supervision of G Kasturi Rangan, the chairman of the pitches committee of the BCCI, work on the relaying has already begun.

"The idea behind the reconstruction is to have hard, firm wickets," says Kasturi Rangan. "We have told other associations to provide true wickets and if we make a start here, then we can set an example for the rest to emulate," he says. According to Kasturi Rangan, the entire surface will be playable within 50 days. In all, there will be eleven strips, one centre wicket and five wickets on either side. The cost of the entire exercise is estimated at Rs 10 lakh.

India is scheduled to play a Test match at Bangalore against England late this year and the new surface is likely to provide a hard and bouncy track. Bangalore staged its first Test match against West Indies in November, 1974.

* Patel, Hazare join NCA

Medium pacers Rakesh Patel of Baroda and Swapnil Hazare of Mumbai have reported at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore a couple of days ago.

Patel, who was inducted into the NCA after the first set of 20 names was announced last month, was in the camp for the probables for the tour of Zimbabwe in Bangalore. However he was out of action for some time due to a knee injury. which he sustained during the Ranji Trophy final against Railways in April. Hazare was forced to miss a month's training at the NCA because of his college exams. The NCA will take a ten day break from June 16 before the inter-zonal acadmies tournament commences on June 28.

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