Chennai: The 2021 Sportstar Aces Awards saw 31 winners declared as ‘Giants of the Decade’ in 27 categories. Hosted on an exclusive virtual platform, this year’s edition was both a visual and memorable treat, taking viewers back to India’s glorious chapters in the sporting field between 2011 – 2020. Sportstar Aces began on 27 March with a curtain raiser show and the award winners were revealed over four episodes between April 1 and 4. The event was presented by MRF, with Life Insurance Corporation of India, Odisha, Union Bank of India, SPEED – Bharath Petroleum, Baashyaam and SSVM Institutions as other partners.
Batting maestro GR Viswanath was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award while five-time world boxing champion MC Mary Kom was named Sportstarof the Decade. Sachin Tendulkar and Abhinav Bindra were declared ‘Inspirational Giant of Indian Sport’.
For the Chairperson’s Choice Awards, Sportstar also recognised the efforts of three Indian athletes who, as frontline workers, have been at the forefront of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic – Joginder Sharma, Ajay Thakur and Akhil Kumar were conferred with the ‘Giant off the Field’ honour by Malini Parthasarathy, Chairperson, THG Publishing Pvt Ltd. The Odisha State government won the Best State for the Promotion of Sport honour for the third time in a row, having won the award in 2019 and 2020 as well.
Apart from the jury and the winners of this year, the show was star-studded with sporting personalities such as Anju Bobby George, Geethu Anna Jose, VVS Laxman, ShanthaRangaswamy, Anil Kumble, Jeev Milkha Singh, Robin Uthappa, Deepak NivasHooda, Vijender Singh, ParthivaSureshwaran, PT Usha, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Kris Srikkanth and others making an appearance at the virtual ceremony.
The unprecedented nature of the last year resulted in little sporting action to make a true assessment of performance. In consultation with the esteemed jury, Sportstar decided to honour the best performers of the past decade. The Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 witnessed the best athletes of India vying for the Giants of the Decade title. These winners have made the nation proud with their performances between 2011 and 2020. Sportstar Aces had three categories — Popular Awards, Jury Awards and Chairperson’s ChoiceAwards. This year’s Jury was headed by Sunil Gavaskar, along with M. M. Somaya, Viswanathan Anand, Aparna Popat, Anjali Bhagwat and Bhaichung Bhutia. The winners of the Sportstar Aces – Giants of the Decade were:
Popular Awards:
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Cricket) – Mithali Raj
- Sportsman of the Decade (Cricket) – MS Dhoni
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Racquet Sports) – PV Sindhu
- Sportsman of the Decade (Racquet Sports) – Kidambi Srikanth
- Sportsperson of the Decade (Motorsport) – Narain Karthikeyan
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Individual Olympic Sport) – Mary Kom
- Sportsman of the Decade (Individual Olympic Sport) – Sushil Kumar
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Team Sports) – Rani Rampal
- Sportsman of the Decade (Team Sports) – Manpreet Singh
- Club of the Decade – Bengaluru FC
- Moment of the Decade – PV Sindhu’s World Championship Win in 2019 and Viswanathan Anand’s 2017 World Rapid Triumph
Jury Awards:
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Track and Field) – Krishna Poonia
- Sportsman of the Decade (Track and Field) – Neeraj Chopra
- Parathlete Sportsperson of the Decade (Female) – Deepa Malik
- Parathlete Sportsperson of the Decade (Male) – Devendra Jhajharia
- Sportswoman of the Decade (Individual Non-Olympic Sport) – Koneru Humpy
- Sportsman of the Decade (Individual Non-Olympic Sport) – Viswanathan Anand
- Lifetime Achievement Award – GR Viswanath
- Sportstar of the Decade – Mary Kom
- Inspirational Giant of India Sport – Sachin Tendulkar and Abhinav Bindra
- Coach of the Decade – P. Gopichand
- National Team of the Decade – 2011 World Cup-Winning Men’s Cricket Team
- Best State for the Promotion of Sport – Odisha
- Best PSU for the Promotion of Sport – Railways
- Best Corporate for the Promotion of Sport – Hero Motocorp
Chairperson’s Choice Awards
- Giants off the Field (COVID-19 Warriors) – Joginder Sharma, Akhil Kumar and Ajay Thakur
- Sport for Social Good – Anantapur Sports Academy