Khelratna to Satwik and Chirag, Arjuna Award to 26 players including Shami and Sheetal Devi.

India’s star badminton pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be given the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award for the year 2023, while 26 players including cricketer Mohammed Shami, who performed brilliantly in the ODI World Cup, and Para Asian Games champion archer Sheetal Devi will be given the Arjuna Award. will get.

These awards will be presented by President Draupadi Murmu in a special ceremony organized on January 9 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. On the basis of the names recommended by the committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge AM Khanwilkar, it was decided to give the highest sporting honor Khel Ratna to India’s number one badminton men’s doubles team Chirag and Satwik.

Apart from this, 26 players will be given Arjuna Award, which includes thirty-three-year-old fast bowler Shami, who performed brilliantly in the ODI World Cup. India lost to Australia in the final of this tournament.

According to Sports Ministry sources, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had made a special request to include Shami’s name in the list. Earlier his name was not included in the list of players nominated for the country’s second highest sports award. Shami had taken the maximum of 24 wickets in just seven matches in the ODI World Cup.

After being out of the first four matches, when Shami got a chance, he took full advantage of it. Apart from Shami, 25 other players have also been nominated for the Arjuna Award. These include armless archer Sheetal Devi, male hockey players Krishna Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archer Ojas Praveen Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Mohammad Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooter Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, wrestler Anant Panghal, Asian Games Silver medalist Wushu player Naorem Roshibina Devi and table tennis player Ayhika Mukherjee.

Ganesh Prabhakaran (Mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (Para Athletics), Lalit Kumar (Wrestling), RB Ramesh (Chess) and Shivendra Singh (Hockey) have been selected for the Dronacharya Award for coaches. Kavita Selvaraj (Kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (Badminton) and Vineet Kumar Sharma (Hockey) have been selected for the Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award. The Sports Ministry had constituted a 12-member committee to decide this year’s Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and Arjuna Award.

Apart from Chairman retired Justice AM Khanwilkar, hockey player Dhanraj Pillay, former table tennis player Kamlesh Mehta, former boxer Akhil Kumar, female shooter and current national coach Shuma Shirur, former cricketer Anjum Chopra, badminton player Trupti Murgunde and powerlifter Farman Pasha are also in the committee. Were included.

The list of players selected for various awards is as follows

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award:
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (badminton).

Arjuna Award:
Mohammed Shami (cricket), Ajay Reddy (visually impaired cricket), Ojas Praveen Deotale, Aditi Gopichand Swamy (archery), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Parul Choudhary and Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Mohammed Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess) ), Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwal (horse riding), Deeksha Dagar (golf), Krishna Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar and Isha Singh (shooting), Anant Panghal and Sunil Kumar ( Wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (Table Tennis), Naorem Roshibina Devi (Wushu), Pawan Kumar and Ritu Negi (Kabaddi), Nasreen (Khokho), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (Squash), Prachi Yadav (Para Canoeing).

Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: Kavita Selvaraj (Kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (Badminton) Vineet Kumar Sharma (Hockey).