Indian Women's Cricket Team Wins NDTV's 'Sports Performance Of The Year' Award

The Indian Women's cricket team won the Sports Performance of the Year at the NDTV Indian Of The Year Awards. Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Player of the Tournament Deepti Sharma, star batter from the semifinal Jemimah Rodrigues and coach Amol Muzumdar were present to collect the award in New Delhi.

India won their maiden World Cup title in any format in the women's game when they beat South Africa in the 50-over final this year. After years of heartbreaks, coming in many finals and semifinals, they finally reached the promised land on Nov. 2, 2025 in Navi Mumbai.

The other nominees were Chess grandmasters Gukesh Dommaraju and Divya Deshmukh, and India Men's cricket star Abhishek Sharma. But it was no surprise that it was always going to be the Women's team who would win the award.

ICC Chairman Jay Shaw praised the efforts of the team. "After India lost the 2023 T20 World Cup semi-final in Cape Town, I told the coach that the team will win the 2025 Women's World Cup. Just like Rohit Sharma's team in the 2024 T20 World Cup, the women's team also triumphed in the final," Shah said.

Everyone on stage praised captain Kaur's leadership in guiding India past the finish line. Rodrigues said, "Harmanpreet has never shouted at me for dropping a catch. It's a personality on the field that sets her different. She doesn't carry the on field aggression off the field."

Kaur said she was very grateful and thankful to be given the opportunity to lead the Indian Women's team. "Worked hard to make country proud. I love playing for India and with my teammates," she added.

Coach Muzumdar praised the women cricketers and explained the important lessons he learnt from them. "They are a disciplined bunch. It was a great opportunity presented to two years ago. They dreamt big and had the resilience needed and it showed as they came back from three defeats," he said.

"The semifinal match versus Australia showed all three qualities - discipline, dreaming big and resilience."

It was then time for some entertainment as Rodrigues serenaded the audience with a song, Badal Pe Paon Hain, from the movie Chak De India, dedicating it to the Indian Women's team. And on popular demand she sang another popular song in Gulabi Aankhen Jo Teri Dekhi.

It was then Muzumdar's turn as he sang a duet with JR to legendary song Kya Hua Tera Wada. Then Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal sang and danced to his movie's famous song Tauba Tauba.