Chanderpaul achieved the “double” after a fantastic year for his country and the West Indies. He was however absent from Friday night’s function as was Bowler-of-the-Year, leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo.

Chanderpaul’s Cricketer-of-the-Year (The Clive Lloyd Trophy) and Batsman-of-the-Year (The Rohan Kanhai Trophy) were collected by his father, Khemraj Chanderpaul while Nagamootoo’s father also received his Bowler-of-the-Year (Lance Gibbs Trophy).

Also absent was Lennox Cush, voted The Most Improved Player. His trophy (The Robert Christiani Trophy) was collected by his sister.

Guyana and West Indies middle-order batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan was the recipient of a special award for his outstanding performances during 2002.

The President’s Trophy for the Team-of-the-Year went to Young Warriors Cricket Club of Berbice.

During the West Indies versus India series at home, Chanderpaul reached 1 000 runs against India. He became the ninth West Indian to reach this landmark against India. He also became the 20th West Indian to reach 3 000 Test runs (He now has 3 898 at an average of 44.30). Chanderpaul scored 562 runs in the same series, the first time he ever aggregated over 500 runs in a series since his debut in 1994.

Chanderpaul recorded the highest score of his career (140) and, incidentally, he also equalled the same score in the third Test against India in India. In 2002, he totalled 1 065 Test runs, at an average of 66.56, second only to Marlon Samuels (80.33) in this calendar year.

Chanderpaul became the fifth West Indian to aggregate over 1 000 runs in a calendar year, joining Garry Sobers (1 193 runs in 1958), Vivian Richards (1 710 in 1976), Gordon Greenidge (1 149 in 1984) and Brian Lara (1 222 in 1995 & 1151 in 2001).

Chanderpaul also scored four Test hundreds in 2002. His fourth was his first outside of the Caribbean. He now has six career centuries, from 63 Test matches.

Bowler-of-the-Year Nagamootoo had the distinction of breaking Trinidadian leg-spinner Rajendra Dhanraj’s record, claiming 50 wickets in the 2002 Busta Shield/Cup tournament.

Cush, The Most Improved Player, for his part, slammed two centuries in the same tournament while totalling 430 runs.

Test player Sarwan, who also enjoyed a very prolific year, ended 2002 in fine style by recording both his first Test and One-day International centuries.

Team-of-the-Year, Young Warriors won the XM-Extra one-day competition for teams in Berbice and are also in the final of the Banks Beer three-day tournament.

National Youth players, Assad Fudadin and Zaheer Mohamed, received the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuco) awards.

Individual awards went to Joe Hillaire - for outstanding service as a supporter and friend of cricket; Pryor Jonas - for long and distinguished service rendered as a cricket correspondent; Dr Carl Hanoman - for professional services rendered to cricket as a medical attendant; Maurice Fenty - for service rendered to cricket in Guyana and Culdip - for service rendered to cricket as a curator.

The Corporate Award went to the Guyana Oil Company for outstanding contribution to cricket through sponsorship.

Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) president, Chetram Singh, gave a review of the Board’s activities during 2002 while Minister of Sport (ag) Dr Dale Bisnauth gave brief remarks.