PTI report

with Daijworld exclusive pics by Rons Bantwal - Mumbai bureau

Mumbai, Sept 1: The Indian cricket board (BCCI) on Thursday launched its official ratings for international and domestic cricket, including women and juniors, but preferred to keep the prize money on offer a secret till close to the planned grand annual awards in April, 2007 at Mumbai.

Launching the ratings, which cover all segments with a broad base including batsmen, bowling, fielding and all-round performance, BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi said the official ratings have been introduced to reward performances which largely remain unrecognised, especially in domestic cricket.

Launch of Ratings and Awards

The categories are: Best Test and ODI batsman, bowler, fielder and all-rounder; best Test and ODI opening batsman, most consistent/reliable ODI and Test player; Best Test and ODI innings of the year.

The popular categories are: Test and ODI player of the year; my favourite player; most stylish player and master blaster of the year while viewers' voting categories would include Player of the Week and My favourite player.

The ratings system is done based on parameters defined by the BCCI panel that includes cricketers and statisticians. For the first time in such ratings processes the public would be able to participate by casting their votes through various channels, Modi said.

Star attraction Mandira and BCCI's vice president - marketing Lalit Modi

"But we are keeping details of the awards close to our chest till the last moment and the annual awards ceremony would be held at the end of the season, in April," Modi said.

The BCCI ratings process is being done in partnership with Percept Holdings, he added. Modi said that the BCCI was on the lookout for sponsors for the ratings and they would be updated regularly on their website www.bcciratings.com from October this year.

 Ajay Upadhyay,  Lalit Modi and Biren Parekh

"This is one of the most important initiatives being undertaken by the BCCI. We hope that all cricketers are given recognition through these official ratings," the cricket board's vice president said.

He also explained that that the long-awaited launch of the BCCI's official website would take a few more months to fructify.

"The BCCI is going to record all domestic matches with a six-camera feed and we are going to show live 72 matches," he said.

Asked about the lack of response from the spectators for watching domestic matches at the venues, Modi said that it was a challenge for the BCCI to make this happen in major centres.

"In smaller centres which do not witness big matches crowds in excess of 25,000 come and watch domestic cricket," he pointed out while admitting that in major centres the crowd response for domestic matches was poor barring the N K P Challenger Series in which all the top players take part.