Tendulkar, Sushil, Mary Kom honoured at Sahara Award function in Mumbai

MUMBAI - Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, wrestler Sushil Kumar and weightlifter M C Mary Kom were presented the ‘Cricketer of the Year’, ‘Sportsman of the Year’ and ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ awards, respectively here at the Sahara Indian Sports Awards 2010 function.

Various sportspersons were honoured at the function that was organized here on Saturday and lasted till late night.

Tendulkar received the trophy from former Indian cricket team skipper Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid here on Saturday.

Having also been presented the ‘Icon of the Millennium’ award, Tendulkar said that it always felt great to do well for his country. “I am feeling great. We always aim to do well whenever we are playing. But when we give in our best and India emerges victorious then one feels great,” said Tendulkar.

The former captain of national women cricket team, Mithali Raj, received the award of Best Women cricketer of the year.

The Indian Davis cup team was named the ‘Team of the Year.’

The Sahara India chairman, Subroto Roy on his occasion said that the awards night was a celebration of sports in India after the success of recently concluded XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

“These are not glamour awards. We are just fulfilling our responsibility of congratulating our sports heroes and it is a thanksgiving gesture to the true heroes of this country,” he said.hooter Gagan Narang, who picked up four gold medals in the Commonwealth Games, and woman archer Deepika Kumari, who bagged two gold medals at the Games won the Special Outstanding Performance of CWG awards (male and female).

India’s famous decathlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, who made to the finals of the 100m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, was presented the Legends Honour award.

Meanwhile, presence of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan added to the glamour quotient at the awards night, as he performed and invited the sportspersons to groove with him on the dance floor.

“I came here because these are sports awards and I am honoured to be a part of them. I had fun, I hope people had fun. I got to meet all of the greatest Indian sports people. Normally, we only meet Indian cricketers, but this time I got the opportunity to meet Mary Kom, Ashwini (Ashwini Ponappa), and so many other wonderful sportsperons,” said Shahrukh Khan.

“Players like Sushil, Rajpal Singh, Sandeep Singh, Dhanraj Pillai, Gavaskar sahib, so it was great to meet such sporting personalities under one roof,” he added.

The over three-hour long show had its usual dash of dance and fun, the surprise element being Sania Mirza, who not only compered but danced as well at the awards function. Also dancing on the stage were cricketer Sreesanth and CWG doubles Gold Medallist Jwala Gutta.

Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha was also present at the occasion besides other Bollywood personalities. By Raziq Khan (ANI)