Ajinkya Rahane conferred Indian Cricketer of the Year award

Mumbai, May 26 (IANS) Consistent in-form Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane was conferred with CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year, former Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara was given the International Cricketer of the Year award, while former Indian skipper Kapil Dev was honoured with the International Lifetime Achievement Award here on Monday.

Indian batsman Rohit Sharma was given a special award for his outstanding 264 against Sri Lanka in the One-Day-International (ODI) in Kolkata.

After receiving the award from legend Sunil Gavaskar, Rahane who had a fabulous year both in Indian and abroad, said: "I enjoyed playing in England and Australia. The 103 I made at Lord's was very important to me. Scoring runs for team and also for winning cause is special to me."

Rohit who led Indian Premier League team Mumbai Indians to triumph on Sunday, said: "We did not get a good start to the IPL season but we got the momentum in later part of the season. We played as a group and won the second IPL crown."

Referring to his 264 against Sri Lanka, the 28-year-old said that he went into bat just to enjoy the game and never thought he would score that big.

Other award winners were: International Batsman of the Year- Hashim Amla, International Bowler of the Year- Rangana Herath, Twenty20 Player of the Year- Dwayne Bravo, Popular Choice Award- Kieron Pollard, Domestic Cricket of the Year- R Vinay Kumar and Young Player of the Year- Deepak Hooda.