After a splendid season, where he scored first-ever double century in One-day and climbing the 14000-runs peak, Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday night was named the Indian cricketer of the Year. Our Correspondent Harish Kotian reveals the other winners at the Sahara India Sports Awards.
India's master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, boxing ace MC Mary Kom and wrestling superstar Sushil Kumar took the top honours at the Sahara India Sports Awards in Mumbai, on Saturday.
Veteran Tendulkar was named the Cricket of the Year, while World and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Sushil Kumar was honoured with the prestigious Sportsman of the Year.
The Sportswoman of the Year went deservedly to world champion MC Mary Kom, while the Indian Davis Cup beat the Indian cricket team to take home the Team of the Year Award.
SHH Hamid felicitated at the ceremony
There was also a special award announced by the Sahara Group with SHH Hamid, a distinguished footballer and a member of the 1960 Olympic Football Team and Manohar Topno being felicitated with the Unsung Hero Award.
Manohar Topno, who was renowned for his magic with the hockey stick, was a member of the Indian team for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He is at present nurturing hockey talents in Jharkhand.
Gurbachan Randhawa was bestowed with the Legendary Honour Award. He is a former athlete who won gold medal at the 1962 Asian Games in Decathlon. He was honored with Arjuna Award in 1961 and with Padma Shri in 2005.
Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena dazzle at function
To add some more glitterati to the award ceremony, Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan performed on some popular songs from the movie, Chak De India and many more.
Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor did a glamorous performance on the song Zoobie Doobie from the film 3 idiots and Sonakshi Sinha performed on the popular number 'Munni Badnaam' and 'Tere Mast Mast' from the film Dabaang.
'Sport in India has increased beyond cricket'
India fast bowler S Sreesanth along with badminton duo Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa performed on some foot tapping Bollywood numbers and enthralled the audiences.
"In recent times, the participation in sport in India has increased beyond cricket. This is quite evident from the success we have achieved recently at various international events and not to forget the just concluded Commonwealth Games," Subrata Roy, chairman of the Sahara India Group said.
"Sports in India, in the past has always taken back seat and never got the deserved recognition, applause and encouragement. Sahara India Sports Awards should be seen as a celebration of this welcoming transformation and a sincere effort to provide a common platform to all sports, irrespective of their popularity, encouraging the sportspersons and giving an impetus to their talent by appreciating and felicitating them.
"As a part of our commitment towards promotion and development of sports in India, the Sahara Indian Sports Awards is a step to honour the spirit of sportsmanship," he added.
A total of 18 awards were given on Saturday
The award ceremony was graced by Indian sporting legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Sourav Ganguly, Leander Paes and Shoaib Malik amongst many other distinguished guests.
The award ceremony also witnessed the presence of the nominees like Gagan Narang, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Dipika Pallikal, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mary Kom, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh among others.
A total of 18 awards, under 14 different categories, were presented in this splendid awards ceremony. The voting process of the awards was held in two tiers. At the first level, Sports Journalist Federation of India (SJFI) initially nominated sportspersons from different sections of sports in different categories.
From the shortlist drawn from the SJFI nominations, winners of the Sahara India Sports Awards under different categories were selected by a 14 member sports jury comprising of living legends from different sports discipline like Cricket, Billiards, Tennis, Golf, Squash, Hockey, Athletics, Boxing, Badminton, Football, Chess, Table Tennis, etc. The jury was led by cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar as the Chairman of the jury.
This mega sports event also witnessed the unveiling of the Coffee table book on Indian Cricket "The Golden Era" by cricketing legends Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble.
This Coffee Table book has been conceptualized, ideated and produced by Sahara Corporate Communications under the guidance of Abhijit Sarkar.
Here is a list of the winners of the Sahara India Sports Awards 2010:
Best Young Achiever (Male): Asher Noria
Best Young Achiever (Female): Soumya Swaminathan
Memorable moment of the year: Vishwanathan Anand
Team of the Year: Davis Cup
Sportsman of the Year: Sushil Kumar
Sportswoman of the Year: Mary Kom
Cricketer of the Year (Male): Sachin Tendulkar
Cricketer of the Year (Female): Mithali Raj
Outstanding Performance of the Year: Pankaj Advani, Suranjoy Singh, Sharath Kamal and Om Prakash Singh
Coach of the Year: Yashvir Singh
Outstanding Performance at CWG (Male): Gagan Narang
Outstanding Performance at CWG (Female): Deepika Kumari
Unsung Hero Award: S. H.H. Hamid and Manohar Topno
Legendary Honor: Gurbachan Singh Randhawa
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