For some it's just a game…for some it's a stress reliever…for some it's their time pass and for some it's their life…..this is what the term 'CRICKET' means to many. A powerful emotion and an overwhelming passion….it is the very essence of their lives… And this stands true not only for all the die hard Indian fans but for all the fans all over the world…CRICKET is a religion. A religion that is spread across different countries, continents and cultures and the one that binds them through their abiding love for it.

The fierce competitiveness of countless One Day Internationals and Test matches stand testimony to this fact that Cricket is no more just another game.

However, inspite of being a passion and a religion in almost all countries, the true heroes who add life to the game have never been appreciated for their performances. They haven't received any recognition or any reward for their performances, something that they truly deserve. After all they are the ones who are responsible for making us sit on the edges of our seats for seven hours and sometimes even five days.

PMG and CEAT realized this need and decided to outline a method of recognizing and rewarding the performances of the players at the international level. It was in 1995, when three cricketing legends Clive Lloyd, Ian Chappell and Sunil Gavaskar came together to fulfill this long felt need in the international cricket arena. Thus the CEAT INTERNATIONAL CRICKET RATING SYSTEM was formed.

The Ceat Cricket Rating (CCR) system ranks the best players and teams in the world based on their performance in Tests and One Day Internationals over a period of 12 months from 1st May to 30th April. The points are allocated on overall performances and the system takes into account the batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping performances. Thus it is the first truly international, comprehensive and most creditable cricket rating in the world.

In its first year, 1995-96 the 'CEAT International Cricketer' award was bagged by Brian Lara. A year later the 'CEAT International Team' award was instituted, with Pakistan rated as the best team in the world. During the World Cup in 1999, CEAT also instituted the 'CEAT International Cricketer of the World Cup' and Rahul Dravid was the proud recipient of the award in recognition of his outstanding cricketing performance in the championship.

The Rating System:
The CEAT Cricket Rating System is a simple, logical, easy-to-understand-and-track-points system. It does not depend on complicated statistical models and establishes equivalence across all areas of performance - batting, bowling, fielding and wicket keeping - translating it into a simple formula where

100 runs = 5 wickets = 5 catches = 6 dismissals (by a wicket keeper)

This makes it uniquely easy and enables a cricket fan to 'do-it-himself' thus enhancing the pleasure that he derives from the game.

For further details on the rating system click here.

About the RPG Group - Company Profile

The RPG Group is one of the top five business houses in India with an annual turnover of over Rs 6500 crore in 2001. The group owns and manages businesses across a wide range of industries including Power, Tyre, Communications, Life Science, Retail, Financial Services and Chemicals. It has its stable established brands like CEAT Tyres, CESC, Spencers, Foodworld, Music World, Sa Re Ga Ma and Health & Glow. It has more than 60,000 employees and a gross asset of Rs 8300 crore. It has leading companies in each of the industry sectors where it operates. For instance, in the Power industry, it runs CESC Ltd., ROG Cable. In the Tyre industry, it has Ceat Tyres and Philips Carbon Black. In telecommunication, it has RPG Cellular and Sprint RPG. In retail it has Spencers.

With its compounded annual growth rate over 25 %, the RPG group is all set to realize its vision of attaining undisputed leadership in their core sectors of operation and global leadership in at least one of its businesses.

CEAT Limited, which is a flagship company of RPG Enterprises, is among India's top tyre companies, with a strong presence in the domestic and export market. It has a value share of over 16%. Established in 1958, it manufacturers tyres for all user segments - heavy duty trucks and buses, light commercial vehicles, passenger cars, two wheelers, three wheelers, earth movers, forklifts tractors, trailers etc. Ceat enjoys a privileged position as a major supplier to OE manufacturers including Telco, Bajaj Tempo, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kinetic Motors, Swaraj Mazda, Punjab Tractors, TAFE, Hindustan Motors, Eicher, L&T and Maruti among others.

The company has three manufacturing plants in India and a research and engineering centre. It has a state of the art radials facility in Nashik which has doubled its monthly capacity to 45000 tyres. Ceat is also setting up additional facilities for 2 wheeler tyres to cater to the boom in the motorcycle segment. The Ceat script is traded on the BSE and NSE.