A photograph capturing cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar's final walk to the crease in his last Test match at the Wankhede stadium has bagged the Picture Of The Year award for 2013, organisers said Wednesday.
The photo – by 41-year-old Mumbai photojournalist Atul Kamble for Mid Day – bagged the award at the fourth MFI-Yes Bank National Press Photo Contest 2014.
It shows Tendulkar stepping out of the dressing room to bat in his final Test innings as his excited fans jostled to capture the historic moment in November 2013.
The picture was unanimously selected as the winner from over 8,000 images submitted by more than 240 photojournalists across India.
Kamble will receive a prize money of Rs.75,000 for the photo, which was also adjudged the best in the sports category.
The awards ceremony will be held here next month.
Twenty-two other photojournalists, who won prizes in six categories, will be awarded cash prizes of Rs.50,000, Rs.30,000 and Rs.20,000. They are:
Spot News – First Prize: Raju Shinde/Mumbai Mirror, Second: Ravi Sahani/Freelancer, and Third: Manvender Vashist/PTI.
General News – Ronny Sen/Freelancer, Raul Irani/OPEN magazine and Vijayanand Gupta/Hindustan Times, Honourable Mention – Arindam Dey/Agence France Presse
Daily Life – Anindito Mukherjee/Thomson Reuters, Biswaranjan Rout/Associated Press and Harish Tyagi/European Pressphoto Agency, Honourable Mention – Sanjeev Syal/Freelancer.
Arts and Culture – Second Prize to Raj K. Raj/Hindustan Times, Third Prize to K.R. Deepak/The Hindu, Honourable Mention – Ajit Solanki/Associated Press.
Sports – Atul Kamble/Mid Day, Amit Chakravarty/Indian Express and Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency, Honorable Mention – Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times.
Best Photo Story – Harikrishna Katragadda/Fountain Ink, Abhijit Patil/Freelancer and A. Raja Chidambaram/The New Indian Express, Honorable Mention – Subrata Biswas/Hindustan Times.
The jury comprised Pablo Batholomew, Arko Datta and Rafeeq Ellias and the awards were announced in the presence of Yes Bank CEO and managing director Rana Kapoor here Wednesday evening.
