In spite of ICC World Cup win by the team India in 2011, there is no nomination of any cricketer for the Arjuna award this season. Now, the ministry clarifies that this happened due to lack of communication between BCCI and sports ministry.
As per sources, BCCI has not suggested any name cricketer for the award this season to the sports ministry, and now the last date for the nomination is over.
After the superb performance in the World Cup 2011, especially by Yuvraj Singh, who was man-of-the-series in World Cup and Virat Kohli, who was the top scorer in ODI in 2011.
While talking to media, BCCI‘s Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said, “We haven’t received the Arjuna nomination from the union sports ministry. I can tell you that this has happened for the first time that we haven’t received the format which requires to be filled up and also duly signed by our nominee. When they haven’t sent us an intimation, how do we send a name.”
Further, Mr. Shetty said, “The process of selecting a cricketer and getting all the formalities done takes some time and only the people in the sports ministry can tell as to why we didn’t get the form.”
Moreover, OSD to Sports Ministry, Abhijit Rai said, “The question of sending form to BCCI doesn’t arise as it is available on the internet. Any sports association can download it and fill it up. As of now, I am unable to provide you with further details as to why BCCI didn’t send their nomination.”
In the meantime, cricketer who have won the award for their superb contribution in sports and won Arjuna award includes Sunil Gavaskar (1975), GR Vishwanath (1977-78), Kapil Dev (1979-80) , Syed Kirmani (1980-81), Mohinder Amarnath (1982), Ravi Shastri (1984), Sachin Tendulkar (1994), Sourav Ganguly (1997), Rahul Dravid (1998), VVS Laxman (2001), Virender Sehwag (2002), Gautam Gambhir (2009), Zaheer Khan (2011) and many others.
