New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has recommended the names of Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and out-of-form Virat Kohli for Padma Bhushan and Padmashree, respectively.
The BCCI has made these recommendations to the Sports Ministry. According to the media reports, the Indian women’s team captain Mithali Raj, has also been nominated for a Padma Shree by the India cricket board.
It must be noted that Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in India after Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan but comes before Padmashree.
Indian captain, Dhoni is already a Padmashree awardee, which he won in the year 2009 while Virat Kohli is awarded with Arjuna Award.
Under the captaincy of Dhoni in limited over cricket, India won all the major ICC tournaments including the inaugural World T20 in 2007, ICC World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013 and is the only Indian captain to have all ICC titles in his pocket. Despite his poor captaincy record in foreign soil continues in the current test series vs England, BCCI felt that Dhoni is the right candidate for the award.
As far as off-colour Virat Kohli is concerned, the highly aggressive batsman has performed outstandingly well for the country, in almost all formats of the game. The Delhi-lad is mere 25 and has already amassed 5634 runs in 134 ODIs, while emerging as India’s mainstay in the recent past.
Nine other cricketers have been awarded the Padma Bhushan, including Rahul Dravid in 2013, Sunil Gavaskar and 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev. Padma Shri has been awarded to 32 cricketers so far including Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, VVS Laxman and women cricketers Jhoolan Goswami and Anjum Chopra.