New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS): The first-ever CricHeroes Awards, distributed in a virtual ceremony, has yet again unveiled the depth of grassroots cricketing talent existing across the length and breadth of India. Cricketers, scorers, organisers and teams from at least 17 cities and towns of the country picked up awards in 20 categories, underlining the spread and popularity of the game.

Balaji Kannan of Chennai and Uma Kashvi of Bengaluru bagged the most coveted CricHero of the Year (Male) and CricHero of the Year (Female) titles respectively. Both Balaji and Uma had won the most number of Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards in Leather-ball cricket in the calendar year 2021.

Balaji also won the CricHero Fielder of Year prize having affected a total of 188 dismissals in 368 games with 161 catches and 27 run-outs to his name.

The other star of the day was undoubtedly Deepanshu Kakkar of Gurgaon, who won as many as three awards including the Crichero Batter and Wicketkeeper of the Year in Leather-ball cricket. He scored over 10,000 runs at an average of above 50 while being involved in 189 dismissals behind the stumps.

Sharing his views on the occasion, Abhishek Desai, Founder of, CricHeroes said, "We congratulate all the winners of the first-ever CricHeroes Awards. They all truly deserved this recognition. We wish them more such awards and performances in 2022. CricHeroes Awards will be bigger and better next year."