Hockey: Hardik Singh, Navneet Kaur named Players of the Year

Navneet Kaur and Hardik Singh were named the women's and men's Player of the Year respectively in the 8th Hockey India annual award ceremony in Delhi on Friday.

Both Navneet and Hardik Singh were honoured with the coveted Hockey India Balbir Singh Sr. trophy along with INR 20 lakh each.

The Hockey India Baljit Singh Award for Goalkeeper of the Year 2025 was given to Bichu Devi Kharibam, while Sanjay received the Hockey India Pargat Singh Award for Defender of the Year 2025.

Sumit won the Hockey India Ajit Pal Singh Award for Midfielder of the Year 2025, while the Hockey India Dhanraj Pillay Award for Forward of the Year 2025 was awarded to Sukhjeet Singh. Each took home a cash award of INR 5 lakh.

Zafar Iqbal, who played an integral part in India’s gold medal win at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and also won two silver medals at the Asian Games in 1978 and 1982, along with a Bronze medal at the Champions Trophy in 1982 received the Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award.

Earlier in the day, Raghu Prasad RV was honoured for being named the FIH Umpire of the Year for 2025.

The gold medal-winning men’s team from the 2025 Asia Cup in Rajgir, Bihar were felicitated during the ceremony, with each player receiving INR 3 lakh and the support staff receiving INR 1.5 lakh each.

The bronze medal-winning Indian men’s team from the 2025 FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup were also honoured, with players receiving INR 5 lakh each and support staff receiving INR 2.5 lakh each.

Both the senior men's and women's hockey teams received incentives for each international match won. While the men's team pocketed INR 1.38 crore, the women took home INR 69 lakh.

Among the emerging talents, Prince Deep Singh won the Jugraj Singh Award for Men's Upcoming Player of the Year 2025 while Sakshi Rana secured the Asunta Lakra Award for Women's Upcoming Player of the Year 2025. Both players received INR 10 lakh.