Anil Kumble is favourite to win coach of the Year at inaugural Indian Sports Award

Former Team India coach Anil Kumble is a favourite to win the inaugural Indian Sports Honours award. The special award, which has eight categories for all Indian sports, is founded by RP-SG group in partnership with Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

The legendary leg-spinner Kumble was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team in the year 2016 and he enjoyed an enviable one year with the Indian team. Under his coaching, Team India defeated New Zealand, England, Australia, Bangladesh, and West Indies respectively. With India grabbed numero uno position in ICC Test rankings Kumble had a chance of getting an extension after completing one year term. But, a fracas with captain Kohli forced him to leave the office unceremoniously after losing the Champions Trophy final against Pakistan.

Among the contenders for the Coach of the Year award, Kumble is one of the big names. He is competing with Bisheshwar Nandi (Gymnastics), Balwan Singh (Kabaddi), Harendra Singh (Hockey) and Vijay Davecha (Golf) for the award.

Nominees for the award was announced on Wednesday and the winner of the award will be announced on November 11.

Indian Sports Award

The Indian Sports Award has eight categories including sportsman of the year for which India’s Test No.3 Cheteshwar Pujara, ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s names have been nominated.

These three cricketers will lock horns with Kabbadi star Pradeep Narwal, Indian football star Sunil Chhetri and hockey player Rupinder Pal Singh.

Alongside men athletes, sportswomen have also been nominated for the Sportswoman of the Year award. Hockey star Deepika Thakur, Rani Ram Pal, cricketers Mithali Raj, Deepti Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur were among the notable women athletes who were vying for the award. The final list for the Sports Woman of the Year is comprised of Olympic silver and bronze medalist winning duo of PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik. Sindhu and Mailk are accompanied by gymnast Dipa Karmakar, athlete Lalita Babar and tennis ace Sania Mirza.

In the male category for individual sports award, javelin player Neeraj Chopra, cue sports ace Pankaj Advani, golfer SSP Chawrasia, and in-form shuttler Kidambi Srikanth are in the race for the best sportsperson of the year award.

The awardees of all eight categories will be selected by a jury comprised of chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, Grand Slam winning Tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi, legendary sprinter PT Usha, former world number one shooter Anjali Bhagwat and former India hockey captain Arjun Halappa.

In the team event category, the Indian junior hockey team, the senior cricket, hockey and kabaddi teams and women’s cricket and hockey teams are vying for the top award.

The other categories are Emerging Sportswoman of the year: Aditi Ashok (Golf), Ritu Phogat (Wrestling), Smriti Mandhana (Cricket); and Emerging sportsman of the year: Harmanpreet Singh (Hockey), Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Ramkumar Ramanathan (Tennis), Sameer Verma (Badminton) and Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (Chess).

Talking about this sports award former Tennis player Bhupathi said: “Having an award at the end of a season not only inspires youth but recognises the past players. It’s exciting to have an authentic sport award in the country. I don’t think we have one. It will definitely create an aspiration to achieve more.”