Mumbai, Nov 10 Sahara, a private company organised the Sahara Sports Award ceremony to felicitate sportspersons for their excellence here on Monday.

Apart from bestowing awards on the well-known sportspersons, the ceremony also gave recognition and boost to the young and budding talents.

It also acknowledged the contributions of coaches, sports officials and administrators. he award ceremony was graced by the presence of some esteemed sportspersons like ace cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, former badminton players like Pullela Gopichand and Prakash Padukone, shooter Abhinav Bindra and others.

Cricketer Gautam Gambhir who bagged the award for 'The best cricketer of the year' felt motivated on winning the trophy.

"It feels nice when your performance is recognised. Sahara has recognised my performance so it is an extra motivation for me to do something good for my country and to make my country victorious," said Gambhir.

All the distinguished players were of the opinion that such award ceremonies boost the morale of the players in a big way and motivate them to perform better the next time.Such awards motivate a lot. As a player I think it is very important that every sport gets its due recognition and today I am very happy that all sports have been recognised," said Yuvraj Singh.

The presence of Bollywood divas like Sophie Choudry and Deepika Padukone added glamour and glitz to the award ceremony.

Deepika Padukone who also performed on few dance numbers at the ceremony was delighted that her father, Prakash Padukone was felicitated with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award'.

"I am obviously very happy as my dad is getting the award after many years. And it is not just an award, it is the life time achievement award and I think he really deserves it." She said. (ANI)