Indian captain Virat Kohli could well be on his way to becoming only the third cricketer to get the country’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
According to latest developments, the awards committee has recommended the names of Kohli and Commonwealth Games gold medal winning weightlifter Mirabai Chanu’s names jointly for the top honour.
The BCCI had in April recommended former India captain Rahul Dravid for the prestigious Dronacharya award and once again nominated Virat Kohli for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna honour.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, a source close to the committee confirmed that Kohli’s name has been recommended for the award. “Yes, his name has been recommended for the honour. He has represented the country with distinction and deserves to be rewarded for bringing pride and glory to the country,” he said.
Virat Kohli has been India’s stand-out performer for a while now and is widely regarded as the world’s best batsman. He was the lone Indian batsman to impress in the recently concluded Test series in England, where he scored in excess of 500 runs.
Kohli went past the 6000-run mark in Test cricket during the England tour and has 23 centuries to his name in the longest format. A run machine in one-day internationals, Kohli has 9779 runs to his name along with 35 centuries.
Mirabai Chanu was the toast of the nation earlier this year as she won a gold medal in the women’s 48 kg weightlifting event at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. She had previously won a silver medal in the same category in the 2014 Games in Glasgow.
Here is the full list of Khel Ratna award winners
1991–92: Viswanathan Anand (Chess)
1992–93: Geet Sethi (Billiards)
1993–94: Homi Motivala (Yachting – Team Event)
1993–94: Pushpendra Kumar (Yachting – Team Event)
1994–95: Karnam Malleswari (Weightlifting)
1995–96: Nameirakpam Kunjarani (Weightlifting)
1996–97: Leander Paes (Tennis)
1997–98: Sachin Tendulkar (Cricket)
1998–99: Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (Athletics)
1999–2000: Dhanraj Pillay (Hockey)
2000–01: Pullela Gopichand (Badminton)
2001: Abhinav Bindra (Shooting)
2002: K. M. Beenamol (Athletics)
2002: Anjali Bhagwat (Shooting)
2003: Anju Bobby George (Athletics)
2004: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Shooting)
2005: Pankaj Advani (Billiards and Snooker)
2006: Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Shooting)
2007: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Cricket)
2008: No award given
2009: Mary Kom (Boxing)
2009: Vijender Singh (Boxing)
2009: Sushil Kumar (Wrestling)
2010: Saina Nehwal (Badminton)
2011: Gagan Narang (Shooting)
2012: Vijay Kumar (Shooting)
2012: Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling)
2013: Ronjan Sodhi (Shooting)
2014: No award given
2015: Sania Mirza (Tennis)
2016: P. V. Sindhu (Badminton)
2016: Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics)
2016: Jitu Rai (Shooting)
2016: Sakshi Malik (Wrestling)
2017: Devendra Jhajharia (Para Athlete)
2017: Sardara Singh (Hockey)
First Published: Sep 17, 2018 15:12 IST
Source: HindustanTimes