Ganguly, Tendulkar are BCCI's players for Oct-Jan period

The BCCI has declared senior players Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar as its "Players for the Period October'07 to January'08 " for their exploits in the Test series against Pakistan at home and against Australia Down Under respectively.

Ganguly was nominated as one of the two best players by the BCCI, in its newly launched quarterly newsletter, for having been India's best batsman in the three-Test series against Pakistan when he scored 534 runs, including a century and a double ton, at an average of 89.

The stylish Bengal left hander, who made his 100th Test appearance in the controversy-riddled January 2-6 Sydney Test, finished last year with an aggregate of 1,106 runs in ten Tests, the eight-page newsletter noted.

Tendulkar was picked for accumulating 493 runs in the four-Test rubber against Australia, the highest run-getter from both teams, and the tally included his 38th and 39th Test hundreds.

The newsletter also carries a short message from BCCI president Sharad Pawar in which he stated that it was important to keep Indian cricket's constituents posted on the happenings in Indian cricket and the inaugural edition of the quarterly "is an attempt to do just that".

It also has a short interview with president-elect Shashank Manohar where he stated that the 2007 was a year of extremes with the shock exit of the team from the World Cup in March followed by the triumph of Mahendra Dhoni and his team in the World Twentyu20 Cup in South Africa.

The newsletter, with BCCI's CAO Ratnakar Shetty as its Editor-in-Chief, has made a brief mention of the umpiring controversies, that marred the Sydney Test.