Mumbai:
Commonwealth Games heroes are expected to share the limelight with cricketing stars, when Sahara India Sports Awards for 2010 are conferred at a gala ceremony in Mumbai on October 30.
A total of 16 awards, under 15 different categories, including best sportsman and sportswoman, best male and female cricketers of the year and best male and female outstanding performers in the just-concluded Commonwealth Games, will be up for grabs.
Not only for sportspersons, there would be awards for coaches, sports officials and administrators, a release said on Saturday.
The awardees would be selected through an extensive two-tier process under which, at first level, the 400 members of Sports Journalist Federation of India nominated the sportspersons from different sports in different categories.
From the short listed names drawn after SJFI nominations, the final awardees will be selected by a jury of 14 living legends from different sports discipline like cricket, billiards, tennis, golf, squash, hockey, athletics, boxing, badminton, football, chess, table tennis.
The jury will be led by former Indian cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar and will include the likes of Dhanraj Pillay, Pullela Gopichand, Michael Ferreira, Ashwini Nachappa, Kamlesh Mehta, I M Vijayan and Dingko Singh. The entire selection process will be audited and monitored by Ernst & Young.
The awards were developed with an aim to bring together all sports, including both popular and not so popular ones, together on a common platform to honour achievements of Indian sportspersons, Sahara India Pariwar said in the release.
"This year we are taking the Sahara India Sports Awards to new heights. While there will be more categories for awards this year, the entertainment quotient will also be at its peak with presence of stars of sports, business and entertainment and performances by Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, many top actor, and actresses along with various sportspersons of India," said Abhijit Sarkar, Director (Communications) of Sahara India Pariwar.
"The awards are ingrained in Sahara's belief of transcending the thought of promoting and recognising sports and sportsmen in proportion to the popularity of the game, towards developing a single, comprehensive platform which can bring all sports and sportsmen together and honour stars and promising talent," he added.
Award Categories: Best Young Achiever (Male); Best Young Achiever (Female); Memorable moment of the year; Team of the Year; Sportsman of the Year; Sportswoman of the Year; Cricketer of the Year (Male); Cricketer of the Year (Female); Outstanding Performance of the Year; Breakthrough Performance of the Year; Coach of the year; Outstanding Performance at CWG (Male); Outstanding Performance at CWG (Female); Unsung Hero (2 awards); Legendary Honour.