New Delhi, Dec 13: Men’s doubles badminton pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were selected for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, while pacer Mohammed Shami, one of the architects of India’s near successful World Cup campaign, has been nominated for this year’s Arjuna Award.
Shami, 33, had a spectacular run in the ODI World Cup, where India finished second best, losing to Australia in the final.
As per the ministry’s sources, a special request was made by the BCCI to the sports ministry to include Shami’s name as originally he didn’t feature in the list of the country’s second-highest sporting honour.
Besides Shami, 16 others have been nominated for the Arjuna Award. They include men’s hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Md Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, wrestler Antim Panghal and paddler Ayhika Mukherjee among others. (PTI)