THE Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) will host its Annual Awards Function on Saturday at 05:00 pm, at the VCA Bilimoria Hall, Civil Lines, Nagpur. VCA’s former President, Adwait Manohar, will preside over the function as chief guest and give away the prizes. The annual function, which is a celebration of the milestones achieved throughout the year by our cricketers, is being held after a gap of three years because of the COVID pandemic.

 

Apart from awarding the successful teams and outstanding individual performances of last season (2022-23), this year’s function will also recognise the efforts of our local cricketers, who showcased their talent in 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons when the action on the field was heavily curtailed because of various pandemic-related restrictions. The VCA will felicitate Vidarbha senior men’s team player Jitesh Sharma for his selection in the Indian squad during the T20I home series against Sri Lanka.

 

Danish Malewar will receive the Best Junior Cricketer of the Year for playing a starring role in Vidarbha’s U-19 boys team which won a double crown in the 2022-23 domestic season. Vidarbha boys won the Vinoo Mankad Trophy as well as the Cooch Behar Trophy organised by the BCCI. The VCA will also felicitate former player Ankita Guha, who is the first woman umpire from Vidarbha to be inducted in the BCCI panel. Total prize money of Rs 16.5 lakh will be distributed among the winning teams and individual players.