The BCCI Naman Awards 2026 — India's Golden Year Gets Its Ceremony Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, March 14, 2026 — Tomorrow evening, at a five-star hotel near the airport in New Delhi, Indian cricket gathers to take stock of what has been, by any reasonable measure, the most successful twelve months in the sport's history in this country.
Five ICC trophies. One year. Five different Indian teams. That has never happened before.
The BCCI Naman Awards — "Naman" means tribute in Sanskrit, a deliberate choice over the more transactional "BCCI Awards" branding — are scheduled for Sunday, March 15. [web:116] BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia confirmed the details this week, noting that the venue near the airport was chosen specifically so men's team players can fly directly to their IPL franchises for pre-season camps starting March 28. [web:116] Even the logistics of the awards ceremony are organised around the next tournament beginning.
Why This Year's Ceremony Is Different
Every BCCI awards night celebrates individual performances from the previous season. This one does that too — but it is structured around something larger.
Five ICC trophy-winning squads will be felicitated in a single evening. [web:119] That has not happened before because five ICC trophies in a twelve-month window has not happened before. BCCI Secretary Saikia was direct about the significance: "Five ICC trophies were won by various Indian teams during the course of the last year — all the members of those teams will be honoured on the awards night, and it will be a great evening." [web:119]
The five squads being honoured: [web:116]
- ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 Champions
- ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Winners
- ICC Women's World Cup Champions (led by Harmanpreet Kaur)
- ICC Men's U19 World Cup Winners (led by Ayush Mhatre)
- ICC Women's U19 World Cup Winners (led by Niki Prasad)
Each of those squads gets a room full of applause tomorrow night. Several of those players — particularly the senior men who are also IPL franchise assets — will be on planes to their franchise cities within 48 hours.
Shubman Gill — The Polly Umrigar Award
The individual award everyone is watching is the Polly Umrigar Award for Best International Cricketer (Men) for the 2024–25 season. Shubman Gill is set to receive it. [web:117][web:123]
The case for Gill is built on a season that established him not just as India's best batter but as a credible Test captain in the transition period after Rohit Sharma stepped back from the longer formats. The headline figure from his England Test series: 754 runs across ten innings, averaging 75.40. [web:117] India drew the series 2–2 — a result that, given England's home conditions and the Bazball approach they have been operating, required genuine captaincy and batting substance across five Tests.
His total for the 2025 season across formats reached 1,764 runs at 49.00. [web:117] He was rested from the T20 World Cup campaign — managed out of the shortest format to preserve his availability and focus for Test and ODI leadership. [web:117]
This will be Gill's second Polly Umrigar Award, having won his first for the 2022–23 season. [web:120] For context on the company he is in: Virat Kohli has won the award five times. Jasprit Bumrah has won it three times. Sachin Tendulkar and Ravichandran Ashwin have won it twice. [web:120] A second Polly Umrigar at 26, in a season where he carried the captaincy transition in the longest format, is a statement of where Gill stands in Indian cricket's current hierarchy.
Smriti Mandhana is expected to receive the equivalent award for Best International Cricketer (Women). [web:125] Her consistency across formats and her role in India's Women's World Cup win make the recognition straightforward.
Three Legends and the Lifetime Achievement Award
The Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award — the BCCI's highest honour for career contribution — goes to three figures tomorrow. [web:118]
Rahul Dravid is the name that has generated the most discussion. [web:114] His playing record — 24,000+ international runs, the unshakeable "Wall" of the batting order across fourteen Test years — would be sufficient on its own. But the Naman Awards 2026 are honouring him for the second chapter as well. [web:121]
As head coach from 2021 to 2024, Dravid brought the specific qualities that defined his batting — patience, process, clarity under pressure — into the team environment. The 2024 T20 World Cup win in the Caribbean was the culmination of that tenure. The BCCI's official statement described his coaching impact directly: "Under his guidance, Team India lifted the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2024. The triumph reflected the team's resilience, preparation and dominance on the global stage." [web:121]
The detail that most people remember from his coaching tenure: when the BCCI offered him a ₹2.5 crore bonus after the 2024 T20 World Cup win, Dravid refused it unless his entire support staff received the same amount. It was a gesture so characteristic of the man that it required no explanation from him or elaboration from anyone else.
Roger Binny, who served as BCCI President from 2022 to 2025, also receives the Col. C.K. Nayudu Award — recognised for his playing career as a key member of India's 1983 World Cup winning squad and his subsequent administrative contributions. [web:118][web:121]
Mithali Raj, India's all-time leading women's run-scorer and the most significant figure in the history of Indian women's cricket, rounds out the lifetime achievement honourees. [web:118][web:124] Her 23-year international career, the ODI World Cup final appearances, and the visibility she gave Indian women's cricket before it had the infrastructure and investment it has today — all of that gets formal recognition tomorrow.
Harshit Rana and Ayush Mhatre — The New Names
Two younger recipients deserve specific attention.
Harshit Rana is expected to receive the Best International Debut (Men) award. [web:125] The Delhi Capitals pacer made his international debut and announced himself with genuine pace and control in a period when India's fast bowling pipeline was being closely watched after Bumrah's sustained workload management. His recognition at the Naman Awards is the formal institutional stamp on what those who watched him closely already knew.
Ayush Mhatre — 18 years old, from Mumbai — is the name that the next five years of Indian cricket conversation will be built around. He led the U19 team to World Cup glory in February 2026. He is joining CSK for IPL 2026. And he reportedly broke Rohit Sharma's record by becoming the youngest player to score centuries in all three professional formats in a single season.
The Naman Awards tomorrow night is where he gets introduced to the full cricket audience that will be watching him for the next fifteen years. He will be playing for CSK in a fortnight. Dhoni will be in that dressing room. That is an extraordinary set of circumstances for an 18-year-old, and the BCCI honouring him at the same ceremony as Dravid and Mithali Raj is a deliberate signal about where Indian cricket is placing its investment.
What "Naman" Actually Means in 2026
The word was chosen carefully when the BCCI rebranded its awards ceremony. Naman — a Sanskrit word meaning tribute, salutation, to bow in respect — is designed to convey something different from a standard prize-giving event.
In 2026, it earns the name more than it has in any previous edition.
The room tomorrow will contain Rahul Dravid and Ayush Mhatre. Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana. Roger Binny, who was in the 1983 World Cup winning dressing room when Indian cricket changed forever, and Shubman Gill, who drew a Test series in England at 26 while captaining a team in transition. Five ICC trophy-winning squads — men's, women's, under-19 boys, under-19 girls, and Champions Trophy — all in one room at one ceremony.
The five-star hotel near the airport was chosen for logistical convenience. What happens inside it tomorrow evening is something considerably more significant than logistics.
India won five ICC trophies in twelve months. Tomorrow, every person who contributed to any of those five campaigns is in the same room.
That is worth a ceremony.
