BHUBANESWAR 06-Sep-2014 172
Woman cricket international Swagatika Rath and veteran umpire Chandi Prasanna Mohapatra were conferred with the Saroj Mahasuara Memorial Award as upcoming cricketer and best umpire respectively for the year 2014 at a function here today.
Odisha Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda and Bhubaneswar Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena handed over the awards, which carried a memento and citation. Eminent cricket coach Kishore Mania and Saroj Mahasuara Memorial Committee convener Manoj Kumar Mohapatra were present on the occasion.
Allrounder Swagatika, who hails from Bhadrak district but represents Jajpur in domestic competitions, toured England last month as a member of the Indian women`s team but could not get the chance to play any match. She made her international debut last year and has played three women`s one-day internationals and two T-20 internationals so far.
Mohapatra, 50, has been officiating matches for the past 22 years as state-panel umpire. He also played football, basketball and athletics in his hey days.
The upcoming cricketer award was instituted in the year 2004 as a tribute to local umpire Mahasuara, who died in a road accident in 2002. The best umpire award was added in the year 2009.
ROLL OF HONOUR:
Young Cricketer of the Year:
2004: Deepak Mangaraj (Bhubaneswar)
2005: Paresh Patel (Bhubaneswar)
2006: Atish Jena (Rourkela)
2007: Alok Sahu (Cuttack), Alok Mangaraj (Bhubaneswar)
2008: Haladhar Das (Cuttack)
2009: Basant Mohanty (Bhubaneswar)
2010: Natraj Behera (Rourkela)
2011: Soumendra Das (Cuttack)
2012: Madhuri Meheta (Bolangir)
2013: Rasanara Parbain (Bolangir)
2014: Swagatika Rath (Bhadrak)
Outstanding Umpires:
2009: Arun Kumar Basa (Sambalpur)
2010: Subrat Das (Sambalpur)
2011: Mario Francis (Sambalpur)
2012: Bibhu Satpathy (Cuttack)
2013: Parasar Biswal (Sundargarh)
2014: Chandi Prasanna Mohapatra (Cuttack)
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PHOTO: Swagatika Rath and Chandi Prasanna Mohapatra with the awards in Bhubaneswar on Sept 6, 2014.
