Team Orisports 06-Sep-2010 334
Nataraj Behera and Subrat Das bagged the Saroj Mahasuara Memorial Award for the year 2010 here at Old Town today. Dashing Rourkela batsman Behera received the award as best young cricketer, while Das bagged the honour as the best umpire.
Local MLA Ashok Chandra Panda and city Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena handed over the awards, which carried citation, bouquet and memento. Eminent athletic coach Arun Kumar Das, chess WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Rameswar Sporting Club vice-president Samir Mohanty and secretary Manoj Mohapatra were presest on the occasion.
Behera played instrumental role in carrying Orissa to the semifinals of last year’s C K Nayudu Trophy tournament, accumulating 572 runs in six matches (nine innings). He made his Ranji debut against Gujarat earlier in 2008.
Fourty-seven year old Das, who hails from Sambalpur, made his debut as an international umpire in the ODI between India and Sri Lanka at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack last year. He has been officiating matches as a BCCI panel umpire since 2008.
The award was instituted in the year 2004 by Rameswar Sporting Club in the memory of umpire Saroj Mahasuara, who died in a road accident in 2002 while returning home after officiating in an inter-district match at Cuttack.
ROLL OF HONOUR:
Young Cricketer of the Year: Deepak Mangaraj (2004), Paresh Patel (2005), Atish Jena (2006), Alok Sahoo, Alok Mangaraj (2007), Haladhar Das (2008), Basant Mohanty (2009), Natraj Behera (2010).
Umpire of the Year: Arun Kumar Basa (2009), Subrat Das (2010).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: Subrat Das and Nataraj Behera with the Saroj Mahasuara Memorial Awards in Bhubaneswar on September 6, 2010.
