Hockey India nominates Manpreet and Rani for Player of the Year award

New Delhi: Hockey captains Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal were on Tuesday nominated for Dhruv Batra Player of the Year award in male and female categories respectively by Hockey India for its third Annual Awards scheduled on March 8.

A total prize money of Rs 1.30 crore along with trophies will be awarded to hockey stars as the national federation on Tuesday released the list of nominations for the awards, given in recognition of excellence in performance for the year 2019 and overall contribution to the game.

Manpreet, who became the first Indian to win the FIH Best Player of the Year award earlier this month, was nominated for guiding the team to Tokyo Olympic berth. He was named alongside Harmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Surender Kumar for the award which carries a prize money of Rs 25 lakh.

India's women team captain Rani, who became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious World Games Athlete of the year award last month, was nominated for along with Deep Grace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur and Savita.