While West Zone players swept the CEAT Awards, East Zone team spent a quiet evening ahead of their Duleep tie

About 36 hours before they are to meet West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final, the East Zone team found themselves meeting their toughest rivals at the prestigious CEAT Awards ceremony yesterday evening. And, each team's disposition foretold the story of what to expect when the four-day tie kicks off tomorrow on the greens of the Cricket Club of India.

While the West Zoners took the front row and spent a raucous evening cheering on three members of their team who took top honours at the CEAT Awards, the East Zone team stayed low-profile, preferring to watch in silence.

After all, the three top award-winners skipper Wasim Jaffer, who was named the CEAT Indian domestic cricketer of the year, Mumbai team-mate Dhawal Kulkarni who walked away with the honours of the best domestic bowler in his debut Ranji Trophy season for Mumbai and Saurashtra's run-robot Cheteshwar Pujara who was named the Indian domestic batsman of the year were going to be on-field opponents in less than two days.



"Of course they are better than us," Bengal and East Zone coach, former India slow left armer, Utpal Chatterjee told MiD DAY yesterday.

"They have been performing well throughout the season and they deserve the honour showered upon them."
But the former Bengal and India left-arm spinner was confident his team could give the opponents a run for their money in the power-packed Duleep tie.

"We are well prepared. Let's see how things unfold over the next few days," he said, before leaving the awards ceremony midway.

Meanwhile, former Mumbai coach, the Late Ashok Mankad was posthumously conferred with the CEAT Lifetime Achievement Award and Saurav Netravalkar's efforts in the under-19 category were recognised with him being awarded the Uner-19 Cricketer of the year award.