PANAJI: Sports fans in India will have another week– till 25th February – to vote for their favourites for the five Popular Choice Awards in the 2022 Sportstar Aces Awards, says a press release.
The annual awards ceremony will celebrate and honour the landmark victories of Indian sportspersons at the international stage in 2021. The event will be held on 19 March 2022 at Ballroom, Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba, Mumbai.
The awards recognise athletes across all sporting activities, thereby changing the popular belief that India is not just a cricket-loving nation but a sports-loving nation.
There are 25 categories of awards this year- five Popular Choice and 20 Jury Awards. People can cast their votes for the five Popular Choice awards: Sportstar of the Year (Male), Sportstar of the Year (Female), National Team of the Year, Club Team of the Year and Moment of the Year. These votes will help the jury panel comprising of: Sunil Gavaskar, M.M. Somaya, Viswanathan Anand, Aparna Popat, Anjali Bhagwat and Bhaichung Bhutia to gauge the mood of the nation and select the winners.
Ayon Sengupta, Editor, Sportstar, said, “We have had an overwhelming response from the fans for these five popular choice categories. 2021 has been a great year for Indian sports, where our athletes did the nation proud at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and in cricket and football too. We want to hear from the sporting fans, our readers and their votes will help and guide our Jury in their decision.”
There will also be a Chairperson’s Award for Sports for Social Good, which will honour individuals or organisations that have used the power of sports to make the world a better place.
Speaking about the event, Suresh Balakrishna, Chief Revenue Officer of The Hindu Group, said, “Sportstar Aces Awards is becoming grander each year like our sporting champions. Aces is not just an award show, it provides a platform to discuss the future of Indian sports and jointly find ways to make India’s sporting dreams a reality. Despite the tough pandemic conditions, our partners – BYJU’s Classes, IDFC First Bank, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Odisha Tourism, ONGC, Nippon Paint and Union Bank of India have come together to salute our sports heroes and fulfil our shared vision of propelling sports in the country.”
The awards were launched in 1994 with the vision to celebrate the stars, the future stars and the tireless partners who have dedicated their lives to sports, to realise the dream of making India a sporting nation. The Sportstar Aces Awards aims to identify and reward the most deserving athletes irrespective of the popularity of the sport.
In 2018, the awards were reimagined and relaunched with the tagline ‘Celebrating Excellence in Sports’ to celebrate 40 years of Sportstar.
Past winners of the Sportstar Aces Awards include Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev, Prakash Padukone, Virat Kohli, MC Mary Kom, Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindhu, Hima Das, Leander Paes, among others.
Pick your favourite heroes and sporting moments for Sportstar Aces Awards 2022. To vote, visit https://aces.sportstar.thehindu.com/
