Mahindra Scorpio TOISA 2018: Kidambi Srikanth claims highest honour of Sportsperson of the Year

MUMBAI: Kidambi Srikanth's record-setting 2017 earned him another accolade when the current world No 3 was honoured as Sportsperson of the Year at the third Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) powered by All-Out on Monday.

As it happened: Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Sports Awards 2018

Srikanth has thus become the third Indian after Jitu Rai and PV Sindhu to win the coveted award. It is due recognition of his dominance on the badminton court during 2017, in which he became the first Indian shuttler to win four Super Series titles and moved to a career-high No 2 in the BWF men's singles rankings.

The 25-year-old was awarded the top prize at TOISA in a very stiff pool of nominees that featured the Sindhu, Sunil Chhetri, Virat Kohli, Mithali Raj, Ankur Mittal and Gurjit Kaur. The esteemed TOISA jury comprising Abhinav Bindra, Bhaichung Bhutia, Devendra Jhajharia, Reeth Abraham and Gautam Gambhir along with the Chief Editor of Times Internet Ltd, Rajesh Kalra, deliberated at length the success of each of the nominees before zeroing in on Srikanth as Sportsperson of the Year.


Srikanth's first title was the Indonesia Open, where he beat Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 21-19, and a week later he vanquished the world and Olympic champion Chen Long in straight games 22-20, 21-16 to claim the Australia Open. Thus, he became the first Indian to win back-to-back Super Series titles. Later on, Srikanth became the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the Denmark Open and then created history by claiming the French Open.

In addition to these four Super Series wins, Srikanth reached the final of the Singapore Open where he lost to compatriot B Sai Praneeth (the first instance of two Indian shuttlers reaching a Super Series final), reached the quarter-finals of the Badminton World Championships and was runner-up at the National Badminton Championships.

"Four world titles in a year is impossible to overlook, and when you consider that no Indian badminton player had achieved that before, Srikanth deserves every accolade possible," said TOISA jury chairman, Bindra. "He soared to number two in the world and is truly a big achievement, and one that Indians should be proud of."

Bhaichung, India's most-capped football player with 104 international appearances, echoed Bindra's views. "Srikanth, along with Sindhu, are the two players who have revived Indian badminton under Pullela Gopichand's guidance. You look at the 2016 Olympics where Srikanth fought so well in the quarter-finals, and see where he has come in 18 months since, and the effort is outstanding. Four Super Series titles in a year - that is incredible," he said.

This is Srikanth's second TOISA award, following his win as Badminton Player of the Year (People's Choice) in 2017.

The other nominees for Sportsperson of the Year were all highly successful last year. After claiming a breakthrough silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sindhu lived up to her billing in 2017 by winning two Super Series titles, a silver medal at the Badminton World Championships and another at the BWF World Super Series Finals. Chhetri was India's top goal-scorer with six, including leading role in wins over Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan and Macau, and also became the all-time top scorer in India's top-tier football league, the I-League, with his 90th goal to go past Bhaichung's tally of 89.

Indian men's cricket team captain Kohli was the leading run-getter in ODIs last year with 1460 in 26 innings at an average of 76.84 and strike-rate of 99.11, with six centuries - the most for any team - and the fourth-highest run-getter in Tests with 1059, as well as being India's top scorer in T20Is with 299 at a strike-rate of 152.55, from 10 innings. Kohli led India to the final of the Champions Trophy, ODI series wins over England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Test series wins over Bangladesh, Australia and Sri Lanka (twice).

His female counterpart Mithali also enjoyed success in 2017, becoming the first Indian cricketer, male or female, to score seven consecutive ODI fifties and then becoming the all-time leading run-scorer in Women's ODIs, taking 16 innings fewer than the past record-holder, Charlotte Edwards. Under Mithali, the women's cricket team reached the final of the Women's World Cup, where she was the third-highest run-getter.

Gurjit was the Indian women's hockey team's leading goal-scorer of the year with 19, the highlight being a tournament-best eight goals during the Asia Cup title triumph with eight. In a breakthrough 2017, shooter Mittal made it to No 1 in the men's double trap, winning one gold and two silver medals at ISSF events and another gold at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships.