The Kerala State government has announced a cash award of ₹2 crore for Indian hockey goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh who was part of the bronze medal-winning team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This is the highest award given by the State government for a sportsperson.

Announcing the award at a press conference here on Wednesday, Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman said that Sreejesh, who works as Deputy Director (Sports) in the General Education Department, will be promoted as Joint Director. The decision was taken at the weekly meeting of the State Cabinet here on Wednesday evening.

The minister also announced a cash prize of ₹ five lakhs each to eight other sportspersons - Sajan Prakash, K.T. Irfan, Noah Nirmal Tom, Alex Antony, M. Jabir, M. Sreeshankar, Amoj Jacob and Mohammed Anas Yahiya - form Kerala who represented India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The minister said that cash awards were given to other Olympians as an encouragement and to keep them motivated to earn laurels for the country in the future international meets. Reacting to criticism against the State government from certain quarters about the delay in announcing the reward to Sreejesh, the minister said that powers to announce such decisions was bestowed only with the cabinet.

This comes after the backlash from the public as the Kerala government had not announced any reward for PR Sreejesh while all other states were awarding their residents with millions in cash price. The Handloom department's prize of 'Rs. 1000 and dhoti/shirt' was the only initial reward for Sreejesh which bestowed pressure upon the Kerala govt.