India’s Asia Cup gold medal-winning hockey goalkeeper and Malad resident Suraj Karkera was in for a pleasant surprise on Friday morning when he received a call about a monetary reward from a neighbouring developer, a day after mid-day published his views about the recently-crowned continental champions deserving more appreciation.

On Thursday, Karkera had praised hockey’s national governing body, Hockey India, for announcing a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh for every member of the Asia Cup-winning team, but also expressed hope that the respective State governments would felicitate their players appropriately. While that has not happened yet, on Friday, Pranav Ashar, Managing Director of Malad-based real estate firm Pranav Constructions, got in touch with Karkera and presented him a cheque of R1 lakh. “I agree with Suraj’s views that our hockey heroes must be rewarded adequately. Suraj is also a soldier with the Indian army, so this is our way of expressing our gratitude to him for his services, not just on the hockey turf, but also for our motherland,” Ashar told mid-day on Friday.