The BCCI has decided to recommend Rahul Dravid for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna Award.
“We will be forwarding the names of Rahul Dravid for Khel Ratna Award and Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna Award next week (to the government),” BCCI’s CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty said on Saturday.
The government had recently extended the deadline for the nominations till July 20.
Dravid retired from all forms of the game at the international level following the Test series in Australia last year after having accumulated over 23,000 runs in Tests and ODIs combined.
If awarded the highest sports award in the country that was instituted in 1991-92, Dravid would follow the footsteps of Sachin Tendulkar (1997-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007-08) as the third cricketer to win the coveted award.
So far 20 sportspersons have been bestowed the award. Yuvraj, who has started practicing at the nets at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore after his battle with a rare form of germ cell cancer between his lungs, was India’s hero in the 2011 World Cup triumph.
Yuvraj is also eyeing a T20 World Cup comeback. He, however, admits that he needs some serious match practice to get into the groove for the rigours of international cricket.
“Ranji Trophy is after World T20. In any case, one can’t prepare for T20 playing Ranji Trophy. The serious match practice that I can get ahead of World T20 is Mon-ud Dowla Trophy and Buchi Babu tournaments but I am still not aware about the dates of these tournaments,” Yuvraj told media persons at the launch of the
“YouWeCan” campaign — an initiative by the Yuvraj Singh Foundation to spread awareness about cancer detection.
Although he is thinking of making a comeback in the shorter versions, Yuvraj doesn’t want to look too far ahead as far as playing in the Test matches are concerned.
“Right now, I don’t want to think about Test matches. For me, it’s important to play any format whether T20 or limited overs. About Tests, it will depend on my form, time and fitness,” he said.
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