BCCI Naman Awards: Ashwin to receive Special accolade; Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana named Best Players

BCCI will confer Ravichandran Ashwin with a Special Award on Saturday. Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana will receive accolades.

Updated on: Jan 31, 2025, 17:09:22 IST

By Vishesh Roy

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will confer Ravichandran Ashwin with a “special accolade” on Saturday during the annual Naman Awards. The off-spinner, who retired from international cricket in December 2024, will be honoured for his contribution to Indian cricket.

BCCI to confer Ravichandran Ashwin with a Special Award on Saturday. Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana to also receive accolades. (PTI)

Ashwin announced his retirement from international cricket following the end of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test between India and Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane. The 38-year-old called time on his career, finishing as the second-highest wicket-taker for India across all formats, only second to Anil Kumble.

Jasprit Bumrah, who was recently awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for ICC Men's Cricketer of the Year, will receive the Polly Umrigar Award for Best Male International Cricketer. Left-handed batter Smriti Mandhana has been named the Best International Cricketer of the Year (Female).

Bumrah was the Player of the Series against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, bagging 32 wickets in five Tests.

On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana was recently named ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year, scoring 743 runs in the 2024 calendar year.

Sarfaraz Khan and Asha Shobhana will be conferred with the Best International Debut - men’s and women’s awards, respectively. India spinner Deepti Sharma will also be awarded for returning with the most wickets during the 2023-24 season.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar will receive the C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony on Saturday, which was supposed to be held in Mumbai, a day before the fifth T20I between India and England at the Wankhede Stadium.

Tendulkar will now join the likes of Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Bishan Singh Bedi, S Venkataraghavan, EAS Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar, Mohinder Amarnath, and Farokh Engineer in receiving this award.

Tanush Kotian, Shashank Singh to also receive awards

Mumbai all-rounder Tanush Kotian will be conferred the Lala Amarnath Award for being the best all-rounder in the Ranji Trophy for the 2023-24 season.

On the other hand, Shashank Singh will receive the Lala Amarnath Award for being the best all-rounder in the 2023-24 season in all limited-overs competitions.

Indore's Akshay Totre will receive the Best Umpire in Domestic Cricket for the 2023-24 season. The Mumbai Cricket Association will be honoured with Best Performance in BCCI tournaments of the 2023-24 season.

In the 2023-24 season, Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy, U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, U-14 West Zone Championship, senior women's T20 Trophy, women's U-19 One Day Trophy, and men's U-19 All India Tournament.

Andhra Pradesh's Ricky Bhui will be given the Madhavrao Scindia Award for being the highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 season (Elite Group), while director Vidhu Vinod Chopra's son Agni Chopra will receive the same award for scoring the most runs in Ranji Trophy 2023-24 Ranji Trophy Plate Group.

For the uninitiated, Agni Chopra plays for Mizoram in domestic cricket.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vishesh Roy
Vishesh Roy is a sports journalist with a strong focus on cricket. He began his career at Asian News International (ANI), where he covered a range of high-profile events, including the India Open, Legends Cricket League, the England–India Test series in Ahmedabad in 2021, and the inauguration of the Narendra Modi Stadium. During his tenure at ANI, he also reported extensively on domestic cricket, covering several Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy matches across the country. While cricket remains his primary beat, Vishesh has also reported on tennis, football and WWE. After a stint of over three years at ANI, Vishesh moved to NDTV, where he gained hands-on experience in digital-first journalism, with a particular emphasis on live blogs and real-time news reporting. He joined Hindustan Times in October 2024 and quickly established himself with a series of exclusive interviews and source-driven stories. Ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, Hindustan Times was the first to report that the two-day event would be held in Saudi Arabia. In the early months of his tenure, Vishesh secured interviews with leading cricketers, including Pat Cummins, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rashid Latif. He has also closely tracked the rise of emerging talents such as Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Priyansh Arya by speaking to their current and childhood coaches. His background in on-field reporting has helped Hindustan Times Digital break exclusive stories on major developments, including Virat Kohli’s return to the Ranji and Vijay Hazare Trophy, IPL scheduling, and the T20 World Cup controversy involving Bangladesh and Pakistan.Read More

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