Mumbai, Aug. 31: The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced India’s first comprehensive and official cricket ratings in Mumbai on Thursday.

BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi said the ratings would cover first class cricket, domestic cricket, under-19 cricket and women’s cricket during a function at the CCI.

The statistics for the awards will be derived from the official statistics of the Indian Cricket Board, which will be assembled by the leading statisticians from the country.

Modi highlighted the fact that the main objective of the awards was to reward the efforts of the domestic players. Many of the cricketers, who cannot make it to the national team, are sometimes not remembered by the public, but this award will highlight their efforts.

"We have decided to highlight their performance and put them across to the world. This will be a huge boost for the cricketers," Modi said.

He added that women cricketers were also included in the awards.

It was also announced that all domestic matches played would be recorded. "We will record every match. We are working with Microsoft and hope to have the clipping of the matches on the BCCI website to be launched soon," Modi said.

"We will on a weekly basis analyse the performance of the under-15, under-17, under-19, domestic cricket and women’s cricket," Modi said. www.bccirating.com would be the dedicated website for the awards.

This is the first time that the common man would be involved in the voting process, and would stand a chance of winning prizes in return for his participation.

The process for the awards begins with collecting the data from the official statisticians and then rating the players according to a model developed by the Board.

The ratings will then be generated by the panel and out of all the players, the top 4 would be selected.