Nominations declared for 2nd Edition of the Sahara India Sports Awards
Mumbai, October 29, 2010: ‘SAHARA INDIA SPORTS AWARDS’ the biggest and the most comprehensive sporting awards extravaganza in India, today declared the list of nominations for this year’s awards. The nominees are short listed by 400 members of Sports Journalist Federation of India (SJFI) from across the nation through secret ballets. The final awardees will be selected by the eminent jury of 14 sporting legends led by Sunil Gavaskar and will be felicitated in the grand award Ceremony tomorrow evening, i.e. 30th October, 2010
The Nominations of Sahara India Sports Awards 2010 are:
Best Young Achievers (Male) – Sushil Kumar Prannoy (Badminton), Virdhawal Khade (Swimming), Ravi Dixit (Squash), S. P. Sethuraman (Chess), Asher Noria (Shooting), Vikas Krishan (Boxing)
Best young Achiever (Female) – Dipika Pallikal (Squash), Gayathri Govindaraj (Athletics), Soumya Swaminathan (Chess)
Team of the Year – India Cricket Team, Indian Davis Cup Team (Tennis), Indian Women’s Hockey Team, India ‘A’ Chess Team (Men)
Sports Woman of the Year – Mary Kom (Boxing), Saina Nehwal (Badminton), Tejaswini Sawant (Shooting)
Sports man of the Year – Vijender Singh (Boxing), Vishwanathan Anand (Chess), Sushil Kumar (Wrestling), Gagan Narang (Shooting), Arjun Atwal (Golf)
Cricketer of the Year (Male) – Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina
Cricketer of the year (Female) – Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Gouhar Sultana
Outstanding Performance of the year – Suranjoy Singh (Boxing), Achanta Sharath Kamal (Table Tennis), Pankaj Advani (Billiards and Snooker), Om Prakash Singh (Shot Putt), Tintu Luka (Athletics), Chinnaswami Muniyappa (Golf)
Coach of the Year – P. T. Usha (Athletics), P. Gopichand (Badminton), Yashvir Singh (Wrestling), Anoop Kumar (Boxing)
Memorable Moment of the year – M.C. Mary Kom (winning the Fifth world boxing title at Bridgetown, Barbados), Saina Nehwal (winning 3 titles in 3 weeks at the India grand Prix, the Singapore Open and the Indonesian Open), Vishwanathan Anand (successfully defended his title at the World Chess Championship that is being held since 2001), Tejaswini Sawant (winning the rifle prone shooting event at the world championship in Munich).
Abhijit Sarkar, Director-Communications, Sahara India Pariwar said on the occasion “The nominations for the Sahara India Sports Awards with the help of SJFI, involved 400 sports journalists from across India and took more than a month to complete the entire process. By standards, the process is the most extensive and brings the rich insight of the experienced sports journalists from across the nation suggesting the nominations. With this process, the eminent jury of the sporting legends from various fields led by Mr. Sunil Gavaskar gets a most comprehensive nomination choice to select the awardees”.
In keeping with the very dynamic nature of sport and the performances of Indian sportspersons, a few Special Awards have been introduced this year to recognize the outstanding performance of Indian sportsperson at the Commonwealth Games, the largest sporting event held in India that spurred our sportspersons into pushing themselves into garnering glory for the nation does not go unrewarded or unrecognized. Under the Special Awards there are following categories – Outstanding Performance at Commonwealth Games (Male) and Outstanding Performance at Commonwealth Games (Female).
The Sahara India Sports Awards also have two special categories – the Legend Honour and the Unsung Hero Awards. The Legend Honour is given to the sportsperson who has excelled in his field to a degree that his feat and contribution to the sport deserves the place of a legend. The Unsung Hero Award, every year honors those sportsmen whose achievements and feats have slipped into oblivion with time and require recognition and support.
The selection has been tabulated by Ernst & Young who is auditing and monitoring the entire selection process.
ABOUT SAHARA INDIA PARIWAR
Sahara India Pariwar is a major business conglomerate in India with operations in multiple sectors, including financial services, housing finance, mutual funds, life insurance, city development, real estate activities, print and television media, film production, sports, information technology, health care, tourism, hospitality and consumer products.
The sponsor of Indian Cricket and Hockey, Sahara India Pariwar, had earlier, adopted Indian Boxing, Wrestling and Archery and very recently, Indian Shooting in addition to covering support of a total of 56 sportsmen in these four games until after London Olympics 2012. The group, in order to uplift sports at domestic and grass root level, supports the legendary Calcutta Football League, Sheesh Mahal Cricket Tournament and many other sports at the national, state and district levels. The group has extended its sponsorship to the Uttar Pradesh senior cricket team which represents the state in Ranji and all other domestic tournaments. Earlier, in the year 2009, Sahara had initiated ‘The Sahara India Sports Awards’ with an intention to bring together all sports, including those which are very popular and also those which are not so popular, together on a common platform to recognize and honour the achievements of Indian sportspersons who have taken the pride of the nation to the highest level and kept the tricolor flying high. The awards are aimed to provide a forum of encouragement to young sporting talents and motivate them to bring laurels to the nation and sports. Recently, the Sahara Group, under its company Sahara Adventure Sports Limited, has bagged the franchise for Pune IPL team by making the highest bid ever in IPL. The unveiling of the logo identity of the team was witnessed by a huge gathering of more than 40,000 enthusiastic crowds.