TOAST OF A NATION: The women’s team’s victory in the ODI World Cup was a high point for Indian sport in 2025 (Photo: Getty Images) Lucknow: The biggest names in Indian sports will once again come together under one roof as the much-awaited Tech Word News Sports Awards (TOISA) returns to Lucknow for the third time in a row on Saturday to celebrate the inspiring journeys and achievements of the country’s best athletes across disciplines. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will grace the event as the guest speaker and present trophies to honor the achievers and rising stars who have made the nation proud in the past year. The event will be attended by sports legends like PT Usha, Leander Paes, Mithali Raj, Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil and Sardar Singh and other top athletes, coaches, administrators and guests from across the country, making it one of the most prestigious sports evenings of the year. This edition of TOISA will recognize athletes in more than 45 categories and recognize performances during the evaluation period from 1 January to 31 December 2025. The wide range of categories ensures due recognition of excellence across mainstream and emerging sports disciplines. Started in 2015, TOISA is completing a decade and a special section will honor the best players of the last 10 years. In addition, there will be a special segment on the UP Player of the Year. Over the past decade, para players have proved their mettle on the pitches and courts and brought several laurels to the nation. To recognize their talent, TOISA has 13 categories dedicated to para sports. A distinguished panel of judges comprising India’s leading sports figures — Abhinav Bindra, the country’s first individual Olympic gold medallist; tennis legend and Olympic medalist Leander Paes; PR Sreejesh, two-time Olympic medalist; Devendra Jhajharia, two-time Paralympic gold medalist; Mithali Raj, one of the biggest names in women’s cricket with over 10,000 international runs; and Sharath Kamal, India’s most decorated table tennis player with 13 Commonwealth Games medals, will pick the winners. The jury faces a tough task in choosing from a star-studded list of nominees, as the past year has seen several breakthrough successes. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra continued his remarkable run on the world stage with outstanding performances in the Diamond League, while shooter Samrat Rana bagged three medals, including two golds, at the World Shooting Championships in Cairo, Egypt. Lakshya Sen has been one of India’s top performers in badminton for quite some time now. He recently fought in the final of the All England Championships. The young shuttler is cruising towards carving his name among the game’s elite. Indian cricket also enjoyed a historic year. The Indian women’s national cricket team won their first ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup title on home soil, while the Indian men’s team won both the ICC Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup. Smriti Mandhan’s winning act and her own performance was exceptional this year. She played a key role in India’s historic victory, scoring a total of 434 runs, the most by any player. The Indian vice-captain scored a brilliant innings of 109 against New Zealand and 80 against Australia along with a decisive 45 in the final against South Africa. Another peach of a performance came from Deepti Sharma. The Agra girl’s all-round performance also earned her the Player of the Tournament award. In another remarkable feat, the Indian Women’s Blind Cricket Team became the first ever Women’s Blind Cricket World Cup T20 Champions. Apart from cricket, the Indian men’s hockey team triumphed in the Asia Cup and secured qualification for the FIH World Cup 2026. The Indian para-athletes also shone at the World Para Athletics Championship, returning with a bang. Promising athletes like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in cricket, Divya Deshmukh in chess and Tanvi Sharma in badminton have become stars of the future. Through these honours, TOISA continues its mission to celebrate Indian sporting heroes whose bravery, dedication and excellence inspire India.
LET’S SUBMIT NOMINATIONS
Here are the nominees nominated in various categories by the renowned TOISA jury, which includes icons like Abhinav Bindra, Mithali Raj and Leander Paes… BADMINTON (MEN) Starring: Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksiraj Rankireddy BADMINTON (WOMEN) Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda, Tressa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand CRICKET (MEN) Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav CRICKET (WOMEN) Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma ATHLETICS (MEN) Neeraj Chopra, Animesh Kujur, Gulveer Singh, Sachin Yadav ATHLETICS (WOMEN) Parul Chaudhary, Rupal Chaudhary, Jyothi Yarraji, Pooja Singh EQUESTRIAN Ashish Limaye, Shruti Vora, Divyakriti Singh HOCKEY (MEN) Abhishek Nain, Harmanpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh, Amit Rohidas HOCKEY (WOMEN) Udita Duhan, Navneet Kaur, Mumtaz Khan, Rutuja Pisal SHOOTING (MEN) Samrat Rana, Ravinder Singh, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Anish, Varun Tomar, Rudranksh Patil SHOOTING (WOMEN) Suruchi Inder Singh, Simranpreet Kaur, Esha Singh, Elavenil Valarivan, Sift Kaur Samra, Manu Bhaker CHESS (MAN) R Praggnanandhaa, Aravindh Chithambaram, P Iniyan, Nihal Sarin, Arjun Erigaisi CHESS (WOMEN) Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy, R Vaishali, Nandhidhaa PV ARCHERY (MEN) Dhiraj Bommadevara, Abhishek Verma, Atanu Das, Prathamesh Fuge, Rishabh Yadav ARCHERY (WOMEN) Ankita Bhakat, Jyothi Surekha, Deepika Kumari, Prithika Pradeep BILLIARDS/SNOOKER Pankaj Advani, Aditya Mehta, Brijesh Damani EDUCATION (MEN) Rishikanta Singh, Muthupandi Raja, Dilbag Singh, Lovepreet Singh EDUCATION (FEMALE) Mirabai Chanu, Mehak Sharma, Bindyarani Devi MATCH (MAN) Sunil Kumar, Nitesh, Aman Sehrawat, Sujeet Kalkal MATCH (WOMEN) Antim Panghal, Manisha, Nisha Dahiya SQUASH (MEN) Abhay Singh, Saurav Ghosal, Velavan Senthilkumar, Mahesh Mangaonkar SQUASH (WOMEN) Anahat Singh, Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Tanvi Khanna TABLE TENNIS (MEN) Manav Thakkar, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Payas Jain TABLE TENNIS (WOMEN) Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Diya Chitale, Ayhika Mukherjee TENNIS (MEN) Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri, Sumit Nagal TENNIS (WOMEN) Ankita Raina, Vaishnavi Adkar, Sahaja Yamalapalli FOOTBALL (MEN) Cast: Subhasish Bose, Sunil Chhetri, Vishal Kaith, Brison Fernandes, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu FOOTBALL (WOMEN) Soumya Guguloth, Grace Dangmei, Elangbam Panthoi Chanu, Manisha Kalyan, Pyari Xaxa KABADDI Sanju Devi, Pawan Sehrawat, Ritu Negi, Arjun Deswal BOXING (MALE) Sachin Siwach, Hitesh Gulia, Pawan Bartwal, Ankush Panghal BOXING (WOMEN) Minakshi Hooda, Jaismine Lamboria, Nikhat Zareen, Pooja Rani SAILING Vishnu Saravanan, Zahaan Hemrajani, Abhimanyu Panwar, Ghashiayah A COACH OF THE YEAR Amol Majumdar (cricket), Suresh Singh (shooting), Ashok Kumar Rana (shooting) PARA ARCHERY (MEN) Harvinder Singh, Vivek Chikara, Rakesh Kumar, Shyam Sunder Swami PARA ARCHERY (WOMEN) Sheetal Devi, Payal Nag, Jyoti Baliyan PARA ATHLETICS (MEN) Sumit Antil, Shailesh Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Nishad Kumar PARA ATHLETICS (WOMEN) Simran Sharma, Preethi Pal, Ekta Bhayan, Deepthi Jeevanji FOR BADMINTON (MEN) Pramod Bhagat, Sukant Kadam, Krishna Nagar PARA BADMINTON (WOMEN) Mandeep Kaur, Manasi Joshi, Nithya Sre CHESS PAIR Vaibhav Gautam, Samarth J Rao, Venkata Krishna Karthik K FOR JUDO Kapil Parmar, Avidha Sharma, Rahul Rajora, Kokila TO SHOOT (MALE) Bhat Amir Ahmad, Nihal Singh, Sandeep Kumar, Rudransh Khandelwal PARA SHOOTING (FEMALE) Mona Agarwal, Avani Lekhara, Rubi Kumari EMERGING ATHLETES Tanvi Sharma (Badminton), Divya Deshmukh (Chess), Shree Charani (Cricket), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Cricket) PARA ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Sheetal Devi (Para Archery), Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics – High Jump), Preethi Pal (Para Athletics – Sprint), Sumit Antil (Para Athletics – Javelin) PARA COACH OF THE YEAR Dr. Satyapal Singh (Para Athletics), Subhash Rana (Para Shooting), Gaurav Khanna (Para Badminton), Sandhya Bharti (Para Taekwondo) THAT YEAR India Women’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Ice Hockey Team, India Men’s and Women’s Kabaddi Teams, India National Shooting Team, India Women’s Blind Cricket Team, India Squash Team, India Women’s Ice Hockey Team
