No Khel Ratna recipient for 2025: Here's why
What's the story
The Indian government has announced that there will be no recipient for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting honor, in 2025. This is only the third time since its inception in 1991-92 that an athlete hasn't been selected for this prestigious award. The decision comes after a meeting of the National Sports Awards selection committee on December 12, where names like compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam and women's World Cup-winning cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana were discussed but not included.
Award deliberations
These athletes miss out
The selection committee, led by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, discussed the names of leading Indian women cricketers at its meeting.
However, they were not included in the final recommendations due to the absence of a specific points-based system to assess cricket performances.
Generally, in such cases, nominations are taken from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), but no nominations were made for these two cricketers this time around.
Award recipients
Arjuna Award nominations received for 17 sportspersons
Despite the top honor remaining vacant, 17 sportspersons were nominated for the Arjuna Award for their outstanding performance in sports and games.
The list includes athletics stars Tejaswin Shankar, Muhammed Ajmal V and Priyanka Goswami; badminton players Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand; boxers Narender; chess players Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Divya Jitendra Deshmukh; deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth; hockey players Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal; kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja; para-shooter Rudransh Khandelwal; para-athlete Ekta Bhyan; rower Arvind Singh; and shooter Akhil Sheoran.
Lifetime award
Dronacharya Awards given to 5 coaches
The government has also awarded one Arjuna Award in the lifetime category to footballer I Arumainayagam.
The Dronacharya Awards saw regular category honors being given to athletics coach Parveer Singh, boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav, and shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan.
Lifetime category honors were given to boxing coach Dharmendra Singh Yadav and wrestling coach Virender Kumar for their contributions in coaching.