NEW DELHI: Indian nominees made a clean sweep at the FIH Hockey Stars Awards, which was announced Wednesday by the International Hockey Federation.
The voting-based annual awards had six Indian hockey players and two coaches from both the Indian hockey teams (men and women) nominated for various categories. This is the first time that all nominees from India have won the prestigious awards in their respective categories.
Not surprisingly, Hockey Belgium reacted sharply to the announcement of the winners. lambasting the the process as a “failure” as none of their Tokyo Games champions managed to win an award. This prompted the FIH to say it would try to figure why some associations “did not cast their ballot”.
India’s dragflick sensation Harmanpreet Singh was crowned the ‘FIH Player of the Year’ in the men’s category. He was the top scorer in India’s Bronze medal-winning performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games. He was nominated for the award along with Belgium’s Arthur Van Doren and Alexander Hendrickx as well as Australia’s Jake Whetton, Tim Brand and Aran Zalewski. Meanwhile, Indian Women’s Hockey team dragflicker Gurjit Kaur won the ‘FIH Player of The Year’ in the women’s category. She was nominated alongside Argentina’s Agustina Gorzelany and Agustina Albertarrio. The other nominees for this award also include Netherlands’ Eva De Goede, Frederique Matla and Maria Verschoor.
India’s famed goalkeeper PR Sreejesh won the ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ in the men’s category. Sreejesh came up with a career-best performance at the Olympic Games 2020 and was the cynosure of Indian defence. The other nominees in this category were Belgium’s Vincent Vanasch and Australia’s Andrew Charter. Indian Women team custodian Savita, on the other hand, won the ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ in the women’s category. Savita, who was also the joint-Vice Captain for the Indian women’s hockey team at the Olympic Games 2020, was outstanding in guarding India’s post and played an instrumental role in the team finishing fourth in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The other nominees in this category were Great Britain’s Maddie Hinch and Argentina’s Belen Succi.
In the FIH Rising Star of the Year for men, Vivek Sagar Prasad won the award for the second consecutive time. He was nominated along with South Africa’s Mustaphaa Cassiem and Australia’s Sean Findlay. In the FIH Rising Star of the year for women, Sharmila Devi won the award with maximum votes ahead of Great Britain’s Fiona Crackles and Argentina’s Valentina Raposo.
Indian Men’s Hockey Chief Coach Graham Reid was awarded the FIH Coach of the Year. He was nominated along with Australia’s Colin Batch and Belgium’s Shane McLeod. Former Indian Women’s Hockey Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne too was awarded the ‘FIH Coach of the Year’ for women’s team category. He was nominated along with Great Britain’s Mark Hager and Netherlands’ Alyson Annan.
Men’s Olympic champions Belgium lambast voting system
Votes from National Associations – represented by their respective national captains and coaches – accounted for 50% of the overall result, while fans and players (25%) as well as media (25%) made the other half of the votes.
It is to be noted that only 19 associations from the 42-strong European bloc cast their votes, compared to 29 out of 33 in Asia.
“Hockey Belgium is very disappointed with the outcome of @FIH_Hockey Star Awards. A gold winning team with multiple nominees in all categories but doesn’t win a single award demonstrates failure of the voting system. We will work with FIH to ensure a fairer system in the future,” the Belgian association tweeted.
The sentiment was shared by the team’s official handle as well.
“We fully agree! This is not normal! The credibility and image of our sport is once again facing hard times. It’s a pitty (sic) @FIH,” stated the Red Lions.
In all, 79 National Associations voted, the others being Africa (11 out of 25 Member Associations), Oceania (3 out of 8), and Pan America (17 out of 30).
“And with a record number of almost 300,000 fans casting their votes, fan participation in the FIH Hockey Stars Awards has been exceptional,” the FIH said.
Following Belgium’s objection, FIH issued a statement to clarify its stand and promised a review if necessary.
“As one can see, all winning athletes have topped the standings in each of the three voting groups…As always FIH will conduct a review of the FIH Hockey Star Awards and make adjustments wherever deemed necessary. In particular, we will focus on establishing why a number of national associations failed to vote,” it said.
The nominations from Belgium (men) and the Netherlands (women), who were not only crowned Olympic Champions but also won the 2020-21 FIH Hockey Pro League, finished behind the Indians once the votes were counted.
Belgium duo of Alexander Hendrickx and Arthur van Doren were voted second and third best players respectively among men, with Vincent Vanasch (Belgium) named second best goalkeeper and Shane McLeod of New Zealand second best coach.
Among women, Eva de Goede and Frederique Matla of the Netherlands clinched the respective second and third places in the Player of the Year awards while Alyson Annan of Australia finished second for the FIH Coach of the Year Award.
Great Britain goalkeeper Maddie Hinch, rising star Fiona Crackles and coach Mark Hager of Australia all were third in their respective categories.
With the FIH Hockey Stars Awards skipped in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 global health pandemic on the international calendar, this year’s awards covered the period from January 2020 through to the conclusion of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, the FIH said.
“The voting process started on 23 August and concluded on 15 September 2021. Votes from National Associations – represented by their respective national captains and coaches – counted for 50 pe cent of the overall result, while fans and players (25 per cent) as well as media (25 per cent) made the other half of the votes,” it added.
