Ashley Jackson has been shortlisted for the FIH World Player of the Year award.

The East Grinstead midfielder is one of five nominees for the prestigious award.

He is joined on the list by two Australians and two players from the Netherlands.

Jackson is currently in India for the Champions Trophy which got under way this morning with England playing Australia.

The 27-year-old came through the ranks at East Grinsetad to make his debut as a teenager and has gone on to establish himself as the finest talent of his generation.

He helped England win gold at the 2009 EuroHockey Nations Championship, bronze in the same event two years later, silver at the 2010 Champions Trophy and bronze in the World League Final last year.

During the current calendar year Jackson was part of an England squad that finished fourth at the World Cup and then took bronze at the Commonwealth Games when he scored twice in a 3-3 draw in the medal deciding match with Belgium before converting the winning penalty flick in a shootout.

The other candidates for the award are Australians Mark Knowles and Eddie Ockenden plus Dutch duo Robert Kemperman and Robert van der Horst.

The list was picked by a panel of experts but the winner will be determined by an online vote No Englishman has ever won the senior men’s award before, although Jackson was named FIH Young Player of the Year in 2009 when the nominations included Ockenden and Kemperman.

Current England and Great Britain captain Barry Middleton is the only other Englishmen ever to appear on the senior list of nominees. Middleton, who had a spell at East Grinstead alongside Jackson, has been on the shortlist on four occasions.

Prior to the Champions Trophy which began today, Jackson had won a total of 189 England and Great Britain caps, scoring 110 goals.

The International Female Goalkeeper of the Year nominees include Maddie Hinch, who was born in West Chiltington.

Hinch, who has played all her club hockey for Leicester and Holcombe, helped England win silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The nominees list also includes Joyce Sombroak (Netherlands), Belen Succi (Argentina), Rachael Lynch (Australia) and Jackie Kintzer (USA).

Hinch has already won more than 50 caps for England.

The winners of all six FIH awards – which include ‘Rising Star’ categories for men and women – will be announced the week before Christmas.