Another feather in Piyush?s cap

WHO IS Piyush Chawla? This was the common question of cricket lovers till February last. But, once the young leggie removed the bails of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar with a quicker googly during the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy at the Chepauk Stadium, his name was on the lips of everyone.

And on Friday, the young lad from Uttar Pradesh found his name once again on the lips of everyone for becoming Castrol Junior Cricketer of the Year.

Besides Chawla, former off spinning great Erapalli Prasanna and woman cricketer Jhulan Goswami, a pace bowler who became the first from India to take five wickets in a Test match in England recently, were honoured in Mumbai with ‘Lifetime Achievement in Cricket and Special awards respectively.

Meanwhile, the Castrol Indian Cricketer of the Year and Outstanding performance awards for the same period (Oct 2004 to Dec 2005) would be announced at Johannesburg in South Africa in December when the Indian cricketers would be touring that country.

The five players in the running for the Cricketer of the Year award are India skipper Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh.

“It’s all due to the grace of God,” Chawla told Hindustan Times over phone from Dharamshala on Friday evening. “The award has boosted my confidence to do well further,” added the young all-rounder, who led India under-19 to convincing 4-0 ODI and 2-0 Test victories in Pakistan just last week.