The Board of Control for Cricket in India has recommended India captain Virat Kohli for the prestigious Khel Ratna award and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar for the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime achievement in sports, according to reports.
Another former India captain, Rahul Dravid, who is fresh from coaching the India U-19 side to a World Cup win in Australia earlier this year, has been pushed for Dronacharya award, reports said.
As many as five names were reported to have been recommended by the BCCI for individual awards. The board has also submitted a case for Shikhar Dhawan and Smriti Mandhana’s for honours.
The last cricketer to win the Khel Ratna award was MS Dhoni back in 2007. The nominations for cricketers are sent from the BCCI as there is no national sports federation recognised by the government.
The BCCI’s Committee of Administrators’ chief Vinod Rai confirmed Dravid’s nomination for the Dronacharya award. “Yes, we have sent a number of nominations in various categories to the government. Rahul is the BCCI nominee for the Dronacharya award,” Rai was quoted as saying by PTI.
BCCI had stopped sending nominations for Dronacharya awards due to multiple coaches at times claiming credit for a player’s success. “It happened when a former India opener had signed two nominations where coaches claimed that the player worked under them. From then, we had stopped sending nominations,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying.
“However when [Kohli’s coach] Rajkumar Sharma got the Dronacharya award, it was a personal nomination. He was not BCCI nominee. For someone of Rahul’s stature, we have decided to depart from convention,” the official added.
Kohli was nominated by BCCI in 2016 but being the Olympic year, the three stars of Rio – PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Deepa Karmakar – were conferred with the award.