The shortlisted nominees for Kerala's biggest sports award - Manorama Sports Star 2023 - instituted by Malayala Manorama in association with Santa Monica Study Abroad, have been announced.
With a total prize money of Rs 10 lakh, Manorama Sports Star 2023 will recognise and honour individuals for their extraordinary achievements.
The six final contenders picked by an expert panel are (in alphabetical order): Minnu Mani (cricket), V Muhammad Ajmal ((athletics), K P Rahul (football), Sachin Baby (cricket), Sidhartha Babu (para shooting), and M Sreeshankar (athletics).
The panel comprising Olympian M D Valsamma, former cricketer and coach P Balachandran, and former shuttler and Arjuna awardee George Thomas assessed the performances of Keralite sportspersons in different disciplines during the last one year at national and international levels before finalising the list.
The winner will be determined via online/SMS voting. The guidelines for the voting process will be announced on Tuesday.
The sportsperson with maximum number of votes will receive the Manorama Sports Star 2023 award and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. The second and third prize winners will be awarded trophies and a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively.
Badminton star H S Prannoy was the winner of the maiden Manorama Sports Star award in 2017. Athlete Jinson Johnson (2018), special cricketer Anish P Rajan (2019), P R Sreejesh (2020-21), and Sanju Samson (2022) walked away with the coveted award in the following years.
Here's a quick recap of each finalist's performance in 2023:
Minnu Mani
A native of Ondayangadi near Mananthavady in Wayanad district, Minnu Mani has been a member of Kerala's women cricket teams in various age groups for the last eleven years. Minnu became the first Malayalee woman to play for the Indian women's senior cricket team when she made her debut in a Twenty20 International (T20I) against Bangladesh at Mirpur in July 2023. A member of the Indian team which won gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Minnu also captained the India A side in a T20 bilateral series against England in November. Subsequently, she once again earned a spot in the senior women's team in a T20 series against England in December.
V Muhammad Ajmal
Muhammad Ajmal, who hails from Cherpulassery in Palakkad district, was a member of the Indian men's 4x400m relay team which reached the finals of the World Athletics Championships for the first time in history. He was also part of the Indian quartet which set a new Asian record of 2:59.05. At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, he won gold in the men's 4x400m relay event and silver in the 4x400m mixed relay event. The 25-year-old Ajmal had also made it to finals of the 400m individual event at the Asian Games. He was a member of the 4x400m Indian relay team which won silver at the Asian Athletics Championship. He has also emerged victorious in the 400m race at the Indian Grand Prix.
K P Rahul
2023 was a great year for K P Rahul, a native of Parappukkara in Thrissur district, as he secured a permanent place in the Indian senior football team. Rahul grabbed the headlines during the Hangzhou Asian Games when he scored against China in India's opening match against China and became the first goalscorer for the country at the Asian Games in about 13 years. Rahul, a key member of Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League, was the lone Kerala player in the India squad for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup held across six Indian cities.
Sidhartha Babu
Sidhartha Babu, who won gold in the mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 event at the Hangzhou Para Asian Games with a meet record, was the first Keralite to win the yellow metal at the continental event. The paraplegic shooter hailing from Pangappara near Thiruvananthapuram also clinched two medals – one gold and silver each - at the National Shooting Championship in New Delhi competing with mainstream marksmen including Olympian Chain Singh. The 44-year-old has also qualified for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. The self-taught and self-coached Sidhartha, who competes on his self-designed wheelchair, had reached the finals of the 50m rifle prone SH1 event at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.
Sachin Baby
Sachin Baby, a native of Adimali in Idukki district, has been one of the most consistent performers in Indian domestic cricket over the past few years. In the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season, he came up with impressive performances for Kerala both as a batter and captain. In seven matches, the 35-year-old Sachin amassed 830 runs with three centuries and four fifties. Sachin was among the leading run-getters at the end of the group-stage matches of the Ranji Trophy. He was a member of the South Zone team which claimed the Duleep Trophy after a gap of ten years. Sachin has also played for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League.
M Sreeshankar
A high point in Sreeshankar's career came when he finished third in the men's long jump event at the Paris Diamond League in June 2023 to become the first Keralite and the third Indian athlete to win a medal at the global meet. In May 2023, he won his first international medal by clinching gold with a jump of 8.29m at the MVA High Performance athletics meet held in Chula Vista in the United States. The 24-year-old native of Palakkad, who is coached by his father and former international triple jumper S Murali, has also won silver medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Athletics Championship. He also clinched gold with a jump of 8.18m at the International Jumping Meet 2023 in Kallithea, Greece, and achieved his personal best of 8.41m in Bhubaneswar at the Inter-State Nationals in June 2023. On the back of his stellar show at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok where he won silver with a jump of 8.37m, he has also earned a spot for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In December 2023, he was honoured with the prestigious Arjuna Award.
