Chennai: The Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 will celebrate the consistency of performance and the impact of sports stars in the decade between 2011 and 2020. Aces begin today (27th March) at 5:00 PM with a curtain raiser show and the awards will be presented from 1-4 April in a virtual avatar.
This year there are over 31 winners with 11 awards under the Popular Choice category that was open for public voting. These votes helped the jury comprising Sunil Gavaskar, M. M. Somaya, Viswanathan Anand, Aparna Popat, Anjali Bhagwat and Bhaichung Bhutia gauge the mood of the nation and helped them select the winners. Also, 12 Jury awards and a special recognition award under a new category called Sports for Good, where the work of organizations/individuals who have used sports for the betterment of society will be recognized and some surprise awards as well have been lined up.
Ayon Sengupta, Editor, Sportstar said, “The unprecedented nature of the last year left us with little sporting action to make a true assessment of performance. In consultation with our esteemed jury, we decided to honor the best performers of the past decade. The Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 will see 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.”
Speaking on what to expect in this year’s virtual event Suresh Balakrishna, Chief Revenue Officer, The Hindu Group said, “Aces 2021 is being presented in an all-new virtual platform. We have added some surprise elements and appearances as well in the show. Spread across 5 episodes, our patrons, partners, and the audience tuning in are in for a visual treat. Despite the year that we have witnessed, our partners – MRF, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Odisha, Union Bank of India, SPEED – Bharath Petroleum, Baashyaam, and SSVM Institutions have come on board to fulfill 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 realize 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, to celebrate 40 years of Sportstar, the awards were reimagined and relaunched with the tagline ‘Celebrating Excellence in Sports’. 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.
