Tribal star Prabodh Tirkey, 23, and Haryana’s Surinder Kaur, 25, have been adjudged the Eighth Hockey Year Book Players of the Year for 2007 in men’s and women’s category respectively.
Women’s star Asunta Lakra and Bharat Chikara, who shone at various domestic tournaments , bag the Hockey Year Book Rising Star Awards. Centre-half Asunta Lakra gave a consistent performance in all women’s engagements last year notably at the Madrid World Cup and the Doha Asian Games.
Sirsa based Namdharis hockey team, which defeated both Punjab Police and the Indian Airlines in the 63rd Senior National Championship at Jalandhar, have been declared the Best Team. Namdharis also annexed some important domestic events including Maharaja Ranjit Singh Cup.
Striker Surinder Kaur played just four matches at the Madrid World Cup last year before an injury forced her to sit on the benches for the rest of the tournament. Yet, she emerged the overall second top-scorer at Madrid with seven goals in her kitty.
Returning to competitive hockey last year after recurrent injuries, Orissa’s Probodh Tirkey excelled at domestic hockey to be part of title winning PHL teams of 2006 and 2007 and was elevated to the seat of captaincy this year.
The winners will be honoured during the book launching ceremony to be held shortly.
Various categories of the Hockey Year Book Awards are announced in the run up to the launching of the bi-annual Hockey Year Books since its publication in 1995. The awards take into account the extraordinary performance of the players in the preceding year.
The past Men’s winners of the award include Mukesh Kumar (1995), Sarabhit Kumar (1996), Lajrus Barla (1997), Dilip Tirkey (2001), Devesh Chauhan (2001), Dhanraj Pillay (2002), Adrian D’Souza (2004). The winners in the women’s category are Sandeep Kaur (1996), Manjinder Kaur (1997), Pritamrani Siwach (1998), Sita Gussain (2001), Surajlata Devi (2002), Jyoti Sunita Kullu (2004).
The Hockey Year Book 2007, which is a domestic edition, will shortly be released in Delhi. The 136-page compendium, which has about 120 images, is priced Rs.400.