Mumbai: Indian cricket team skipper and batter Harmanpreet Kaur, who had a memorable 2022, and football star Sunil Chhetri got ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ and ‘Sportsman of the Year’ awards respectively at an event here. The awards event was hosted by Sportstar, a monthly English sports magazine.
Harmanpreet had a year to remember in 2022. As a skipper, she led her team to a historic silver medal in Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham in August. Team India lost to Australia narrowly by nine runs in the final. Then later during the tour of England, she led the team to a historic 3-0 whitewash against the hosts in a three-match series in September. Under her leadership, Team India also clinched its seventh Women’s Asia Cup title, defeating Sri Lanka in the final by eight wickets.
Harmanpreet, the batter, was also in top form. In 17 ODIs and 16 innings, she scored 754 runs at an average of 58.00, with two hundreds and five fifties and the best score of 143*. In 22 T20Is and across 20 innings, she scored 524 runs at an average of 32.75, with two half-centuries and a best score of 65.
Chhetri also had a solid year. The 38-year-old fired four goals to help Team India secure qualification to the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, their second straight qualification for the tournament after 2019. He also has 84 goals in 131 international matches, which makes him the player with third highest goals among active players, behind FIFA World Cup winner Lionel Messi of Argentina (98) and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (118). Chhetri is also the fifth-highest goal scorer of all time in international football.
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