Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna AwardIndia’s premier badminton men’s doubles pair ofSatwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shettyis in line to receive theMajor Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award,the country’s highest sports prize. The pair has had a remarkable year, reaching as many as six finals, winning five. They won at theAsian Games, Asian Championships, Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open. They were runners-up at China Masters.Arjuna Award NomineesIndia pace aceMohammed Shami,who finished as the top wickettaker in theODI World Cup with 24 scalps,is in the list for theArjuna Award,it is learnt. Satwik-Chirag, the first Indian doubles pair to rise to the top of the international game, also rose to No.1 in the BWF world rankings this year, also a first for an Indian doubles pair.
Nominees for Sports Awards
- Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award:Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (badminton).
- Arjuna Award:Mohammed Shami (cricket), Ajay Reddy (blind cricket) Ojas Pravin Deotale, Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Parul Chaudhary and M Sreeshankar (athletics), Mohd Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Antim Panghal (wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis).
- Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award:Kavita (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton) Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey).
- Dronacharya Award:Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (para athletics), Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Shivendra Singh (hockey).
