The Board of Cricket Control for India has recommended the names of Cheteshwar Pujara and Harmanpreet Kaur for the prestigious Arjuna award as per PTI.
A senior office-bearer while talking to PTI said, “We have sent Cheteshwar and Harmanpreet”s name for the Arjuna award. The names have been forwarded to the Ministry of Sports.”
Harmanpreet has been India’s best batter over the years in the limited over game. Last year she played a pivotal role in India’s T-20 series win against Australia which earned her a call from Sydney Thunders in Women’s Big Bash League. She became the first Indian player ever to play the WBBL. She had an amazing tournament with the Sidney Thunder scoring 296 runs in 12 innings. She also helped India to win the Women’s Asia Cup later that year. Recently she was praised all over the globe for her heroics against Australia where she played an unbeaten knock of 171 taking India single-handedly to the finals.
Cricketers @cheteshwar1 & @ImHarmanpreet, Paralympians Mariyappan Thangavelu & Varun Bhati, golfer @SSP_Golf among 17 Arjuna awardees.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 3, 2017
While, Pujara has been the mainstay of India’s batting in Test Cricket in the long home season scoring 1316 runs in 13 test matches with an average of 62.66, the highest ever by an Indian batsman. The batsman from Saurashtra went past 4000 runs today when he scored an unbeaten 100 against Sri Lanka in the second test match in Colombo.
“Both have been exceptional performers during last season and were a unanimous choice from our end,” the official went on to add.
Cricketers C.Pujara, Harmanpreet Kaur; Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu; Golfer Shiv Chawrasia among 17 sports-persons to get Arjuna Awards
— ANI (@ANI) August 3, 2017
However, Mithali Raj was ignored by BCCI for the Khel Ratna awards after her outstanding performance in the World Cup. She went on to become the highest run-getter in women’s cricket overtaking England’s Charlotte Edwards. The only way now for her to receive the award is only if BCCI acknowledges its mistake and resends their recommendation with a thorough intervention of the Sports Minister Vijay Goel.
