MUMBAI, July 7:
The Cricket Board has decided to recommend recently retired stalwart Rahul Dravid for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Yuvraj Singh, the player of the World Cup, for the Arjuna Award.
“We will be forwarding the names of Rahul Dravid for Khel Ratna Award and Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna Award next week (to the government),” BCCI’s CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty told PTI today.
The Government had recently extended the deadline for the nominations till July 20.
The 39-year-old Dravid retired from all forms of the game at the international level following the Test series in Australia last year after having accumulated over 23,000 runs in Tests and ODIs combined since making a spectacular debut at Lord’s in 1996.
If awarded the highest sports award in the country that was instituted in 1991-92, former India captain Dravid would follow the footsteps of his illustrious ex-teammates Sachin Tendulkar (1997-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007-08) as the third cricketer to win the coveted award.
So far 20 sportspersons have been bestowed the award.
Yuvraj, who has started practising at the nets at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore after his battle with a rare form of germ cell cancer between his lungs, was India’s hero in the 2011 World Cup triumph.
Meanwhile, Yuvraj Singh, who has recovered from a rare germ cell cancer, feels “honoured” that the BCCI has again sent his nomination for the prestigious Arjuna award and is hoping that he will be more lucky this time.
“It’s an honour that BCCI has nominated my name for the Arjuna Award. This is the second time that my name has been nominated and I hope that I am lucky enough to get it,” Yuvraj told mediapersons at the launch of the “YouWeCan” — an initiative by Yuvraj Singh Foundation, to spread awareness about cancer detection.
The BCCI has decided to nominate Yuvraj for the award. Incidentally, the BCCI’s decision came after a miscommunication with the Sports Ministry regarding the last date for filing the nomination form.
The BCCI had alleged that they did not have an intimation about the nomination like earlier years, a claim which was strongly refuted by the Sports Ministry. However a couple of days back, the Joint Secretary in the Sports Ministry Mukul Chatterjee called up at the BCCI office to inform about the date of nomination being extended till July 20.
Although Virat Kohli has been a standout performer last year, the BCCI has decided to nominate Yuvraj’s name since he is one of the seniormost cricketers who is yet to receive the award. His contemporaries like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir have all received the award. (PTI)
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