India captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the ‘Sportswoman of the year (Cricket)’ award at the Sportstar Aces Awards 2023 at The Taj Mahal Palace here on Monday.

Odisha won the ‘Best State For the Promotion of Sports’ award. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik received the award.

“I would like to thank The Hindu Group and Sportstar magazine for this honorable award. In Odisha, we have tried to do a great deal for hockey in the last few years - in the last 15 months, we have built the largest hockey stadium in the world. We believe investment in sports is an investment in youth, and investment in youth is an investment in the future,” Patnaik said.

Mohinder Amarnath, a key member of the Indian team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup, recalled the moment when he took the last West Indian wicket to fall in the final. “When West Indies was nine down, Kapil (Dev) was bowling and I was fielding at deep point. I was praying that Kapil should not take the wicket, only because it would have been impossible for me to reach the dressing room. The crowd was absolutely ready to run into the ground,” Amarnath said.

On the winning moment, Amarnath said, “At the time, we didn’t realise what we did. We created history.”

The jury panel was headed by legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra, former India hockey captain M.M. Somaya, chess great Viswanathan Anand, former India football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia, and Olympians Anjali Bhagwat and Aparna Popat were the other members of the jury.

The event is supported by IDFC First Bank, Indian Oil, India Cements, United India, Ramaiah University, Experimenta Science Center GD Naidu Charity, Finolex Pipes, LIC, BPCL, Samsonite, Big Basket, Nippon Paint, CRICHQ, Wordswork, NewsX and Casagrand.

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