Winning ways

Indian white-ball dominance was in focus at the 2025 CEAT Cricket Rating Awards

- ANIRUDH MADHAVAN/MUMBAI

BRIAN LARA and B.S. Chandrasekhar have little in common, apart from being unorthodox craftsmen who at times single-handedly lifted a sagging team to victory.

But on October 7, at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai, their names did belong together—both were given the lifetime achievement award. But while there was a note of gratitude in the way Chandrasekhar was honoured—Sunil Gavaskar called him India’s original match-winner and played an audio clip of him delivering the news of the award to Chandrasekhar, who couldn’t be there—there was a tinge of longing with Lara’s honour. If India had unearthed many more match winners to follow in Chandrasekhar’s footsteps, the West Indies were still looking to the Lara years as the last time they had a truly competitive Test team.

In July, Australia had bundled out the West Indies for 27 in Jamaica, following which past greats including Lara, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd were brought together for an emergency meeting to assess the way forward.