New Delhi: Ashok Kumar won the prestigious Hockey India Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award, while Hardik Singh and Salima Tete were honoured with the Hockey India Balbir Singh Sr. Award for Player of The Year 2023 awards in Men’s and Women’s categories, respectively at the Hockey India 6th Annual Awards 2023 here on Sunday.
This year the total prize pool was an unprecedented amount of INR 7.56 crores. The ceremony started with the Milestone Awards 2023 with Vivek Sagar Prasad, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Udita, Salima Tete, and Gurjant Singh winning a cash prize of Rs 1 Lakh and a trophy each for completing 100 international caps. Nikki Pradhan, Amit Rohidas, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, and Neha were also presented with INR 1.5 Lakh and a trophy each for completing 150 international caps.
Harmanpreet Singh was awarded Rs 2 Lakh and a trophy for completing 200 international caps, while goalkeeper Savita was presented with Rs 2.5 Lakh along with a trophy for earning 250th International Cap. Veteran PR Sreejesh was presented with Rs 3 Lakh along with a trophy for earning his 300th International Cap.
Vandana Katariya became the first Indian Women's Hockey Team player to earn her 300th international cap and was awarded Rs 3 lakh along with a trophy. Rs 3.5 Lakh and a trophy was presented to Manpreet Singh for completing 350 International matches for India.
Deepika, Mohith H S, Annu, Anjali Barwa, Maninder Singh, Deepika Soreng, Mandeep Singh, Salima Tete, Sangita Kumari, Harmanpreet Singh, were awarded a cash prize of INR 1 Lakh and a trophy for their spectacular individual performances. Savita was presented with a prize of Rs 5 Lakhs, while Hardik Singh was presented a cash prize of Rs 10 Lakhs.
The Gold Medal Winning Indian Men's Hockey Team for Men's Hockey 5s Asia Cup Salalah 2023, and the Gold Medal Winning Indian Women's Hockey Team for Women's Hockey 5s Asia Cup Salalah 2023 were felicitated.
The Gold medal Winning Indian Men's Hockey Team of Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023, and the Gold Medal Winning Indian Women's Hockey Team of Jharkhand Women's Asian Champions Trophy Ranchi 2023 were also felicitated.
The Indian Men's Hockey Team was also honoured for their Gold medal winning performance at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, China. The Indian Women's Hockey Team that won the Bronze medal in the tournament were awarded Rs 3 Lakh for each player.
The award ceremony saw PR Sreejesh winning the prestigious Hockey India Baljit Singh Award for Goalkeeper of the Year. Harmanpreet Singh won the Hockey India Pargat Singh Award for Defender of the Year. Hockey India Ajit Pal Singh Award for Midfielder of the Year was won by Hardik Singh, while Abhishek won the prestigious Hockey India Dhanraj Pillay Award for Forward of the Year.
Hockey India Secretary General Bhola Nath Singh said, "We also want to re-confirm that we will soon launch Hockey India League for both teams with eight Men's teams and six Women's teams. We aim to launch the same latest by January next year."
