BCCIโs various winners at its annual awards on Sunday, celebrating a year when India picked 5 ICC trophies, across men and women, could be carbon-dated in various ways. The journey from determination to dominance, can literally be gauged by their cars, mobile phones, movies and video games, of the day.
Rahul Dravid recalled getting a lift from fellow Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Roger Binny back to his Indiranagar home, while chewing the 1983 World Cup winnerโs brains about cricket, riding in a FIAT, โwhich was the Ferrari of that time.โ Abhishek Sharma recalled going to a state camp with a Samsung mobile, where โonly Shubman Gill had an IPhoneโ, Sanju Samsonโs first was a Motorola with a flap, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, carries two phones, his seniors informed with a chuckle. Hardik Pandyaโs first vehicle was a Maruti 800, Samsonโs a Wagon R and Abhishekโs an Activa scooty. Hardikโs favourite movie remained the 1998 Godzilla, Sooryavanshiโs Dhurandhar, while Abhishek digs 3 Idiots. While Samson grew up playing Grand Theft Auto and Abhishek Cricket 07, the teenaged Sooryavanshiโs batting had evoked a conversation between Samson and coach Dravid at Rajasthan Royals, with the senior batsman saying, โVaibhav ki batting toh khud video game hai.โ
Indiaโs dominance leading to a surfeit of sudden titles, has hitched upon aggressive strokeplay, one hitter more explosive than the next. David who coached the 2024 T20 WC winners, and Sanju, who played in the 2026 title (some might say, dragging India to it single battedly), acing the KOs, had been witness to Sooryavanshiโs IPL debut. The youngster who took the U19 final by storm, and wants to break Chris Gayleโs record of 175, was about to debut for Royals. โMe and Dravid Sir met him before his first match and Sir said we should talk to him. We asked him what he planned to do. He said, โpehla (ball) mila toh pehla hi udda denge.โ I thought yeh toh video game khel rahaa Hai,โ Sanju remembered. True to word, his first shot was a six over covers.
Tribute to a legendary career and invaluable contribution to Indian Cricket ๐
ICC Chairman Mr. @JayShah felicitates #TeamIndia legend and former Head Coach Mr. Rahul Dravid with the most prestigious Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award ๐#NamanAwards pic.twitter.com/kKvpY81nDX
โ BCCI (@BCCI) March 15, 2026
The immense potential of Indian cricket โ the underlying theme of the awards celebration besides chorusing on the triumphs โ was also evident in how Womenโs captain Harmanpreet acknowledged how watching the U19 womenโs team of Niki Prasad, win back-to-back World titles had inspired the seniors team win theirโs on November 2nd. The last 10 overs of the 2017 WC final, had haunted Harman enough to replay them over and over in her head, as Indian women struggled to cross the line. โBut we watched the U19s win. They were the first ones to bring the Cup. Twice. That inspired us,โ she would say.
While 2025โs finest performance of Indian cricket resides with Jemimah Rodrigues, who Harman said had needed a small break before she returned to play the innings of a lifetime against Australia, Niki, the young captain, spoke of โknowing what we needed to do.โ Indiaโs Gen Next โ men and women โ were happily free of self doubts, and basic struggles that their predecessors, like the third Lifetime Achievement winner Mithali Raj, had been wracked with.
Celebrating a legendary journey that transformed womenโs cricket in India โจ
ICC Chairman Mr. @JayShah honours former #TeamIndia captain @M_Raj03 with the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award ๐#NamanAwards pic.twitter.com/gzPaqWRYLC
โ BCCI (@BCCI) March 15, 2026
Both Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav would talk about the utter non-necessity of giving advice to the younger bunch, who came armed with fearlessness and clarity. But a team culture, the ethos and values did tend to get passed on. Like Surya crediting the 2024 squad of Rohit-Virat and Dravid for how continuity was respected and players werenโt flung aside, with ingratitude, their experience valued.
โIt was not difficult from where we left in 2024 which showed trust in players paid off. Sports has a lot of ups and downs, but we showed belief in players in the new cycle,โ he explained about calls to stick with Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy. โWe wanted to make as less changes as possible, stand by players who did well. Gautier bhai said, we created a super team so letโs stick by them. We were playing with 8 batters, who were same for last one and half years. They took responsibility and chipped in.โ
๐ฃ๏ธ ๐๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐๐น ๐ฟ๐๐ป ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ, ๐น๐ฒ๐โ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ต๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ.
๐ฅ Captain Surya Kumar Yadav on #TeamIndiaโs brilliant run in ICC events across formats and his goals for the future ๐โฆ pic.twitter.com/8vvuI7YSgZ
โ BCCI (@BCCI) March 15, 2026
Knowledge also gets transferred in IPL, like MS Dhoniโs golden words to Ayush Mhatre that stayed with him. โAlways remain cool. Decisions made in anger are always wrong.โ Or Hardik who urges youngsters at Mumbai Indians to stay patient and learn new tricks everyday. The tattooed, blond-haired maverick would also talk of his earliest classical Mumbai influence: Wasim Jaffer. โI used to copy his batting. He had class, and timing.โ
Shubman, who emulated his heroes Rohit bhai, Virat bhai, Ash bhai, Mahi bhai from 2013 in winning Champions Trophy, would speak of how trophies inspired the next generation. โAs a kid you wanna replicate that moment. To be able to accomplish one of those (CT 2025) was a dream, it was special winning after 12 years. I learnt if you keep focusing on what you have to do, primarily as batsman score runs, all else falls into place.โ
Itโs how winning trophies became a habit. And India was sitting pretty with 5 of the 8 ICC Cups contested in last two years.
