For the first time ever, India swept the eight 2021 International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) annual Hockey Star Awards with drag-flickers Harmanpreet Singh and Gurjit Kaur claiming the Player of the Year honours in men and women.
- However, world no. 1, 2021 Tokyo Olympics champions of Men’s Hockey,Belgium team has expressed over the voting system and the outcome of FIH Hockey Star Awards after none of their players won any award.
The awards
| Award | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Player of the Year Award | Harmanpreet Singh | Gurjit Kaur |
| Goalkeeper of the Year Award | PR Sreejesh | Savita Punia |
| Rising Star of the Year Award | Vivek Sagar Prasad | Sharmila Devi |
| The Best Coach Award | Graham Reid | Sjoerd Marijne |
i.Harmanpreet Singh and Gurjit Kaur were the India’s top scorers in Tokyo with 6 and 4respectively.
ii.For Belgium men, Alexander Hendrickx and Arthur van Doren were voted the second and third best players with Vincent Vanasch named the second best goalkeeper and Shane McLeod the second best coach.
iii.In 2019, Indian men’s team skipper Manpreet Singh won the Player of the Year honour and Prasad and Lalremsiami (women) took home the Rising Star of the Year awards.
iv.There were no awards in 2020 due to Covid-19.
Voting process
i.The 2021 awards covered the period from January 2020 to the conclution of Tokyo Olympics 2020.
ii.The voting process started on August 23 and concluded on September 15.
iii.The voting process consists of around 50 % of the votes from national associations—represented by captains and coaches, 25 % by the media and the final 25 % by fans and players.
iv.Only 79 of the 138 national associations voted with most dropping out of Africa (11 voted out of 25), Europe (19 out of 42) and Pan America (17 out of 30).
v.A record number of 3,00,000 fans cast their votes . A large chunk belonging to the Indian subcontinent which likely favoured Indian nominees.
About FIH
It stands for Federation International de Hockey and commonly known as International Hockey Federation.
President – Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra
Headquarters – Lausanne, Switzerland
