Indian cricket team’s most ardent opener batsman Rohit Sharma will be conferred with the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Samman’. The Sports Ministry has given the green signal on the recommendation of the selection committee. The 12-member selection committee formed by the Sports Ministry for the National Sports Award 2020 recommended five players, including Rohit Sharma, for the country’s highest sports honor. Now this honor will be given to all those players including Rohit Sharma. The achievements of Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sports award, were considered from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019.
Apart from Rohit Sharma, the selection committee recommended the names of women wrestler Vinesh Phogat, women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal, para athlete Mariyappan Thangavelu and women table tennis player Manika Batra also enlisted for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. 33-year-old Rohit Sharma will be the fourth Indian cricketer to receive the country’s highest sporting honor. Before him Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have received this honor.
The selection committee constituted for the sports award included former cricketer Virender Sehwag, former hockey player Sardar Singh and many more. Considering the achievements of each player, this committee recommended their names. Rohit Sharma had a terrific performance in international cricket last year as well as his performance in One Day World Cup was a big bang. Apart from this, female wrestler Vinesh Phogat won the gold medal in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. After this, Vinesh also won the bronze medal in the Asian Wrestling Championship in 2019.
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Women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal also performed brilliantly in the Women’s Asia Cup 2017 as well as won the silver medal in the 2018 Asian Games. In the FIH Olympic qualifiers, Rani played a big role in qualifying India in the Tokyo Olympics. At the same time, Thangavelu has been awarded for winning the gold medal in the T42 high jump at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Name of table tennis player Manika has been recommended for her great performance in 2018. He won the Gold at the Commonwealth Games that year and the Bronze medal at the Asian Games. These sportspersons can be honored on National Sports Day i.e. 29 August.
