New Delhi: In a major embarrassment for Indian cricket, Women’s team captain Mithali Raj is now not eligible for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award as BCCI failed to send her recommendation on time.
Mithali was in line to get the country’s highest award for sportspersons and her teammate Harmanpreet Kaur was named in the Arjuna awardees’ list after their superb performance in the recently concluded Women’s World Cup where they finished as runner-ups. But due to utter negligence of BCCI, Mithali founds herself out of the Khel Ratna race.
However, there is still a glimmer of hope left for the highest scorer of the world as there is a case for late submissions but it requires interventions from the current Sports Minister Vijay Goel.
It comes as a crude shock as it was barely a week ago that BCCI organized one of the grandest felicitation programmes for the England-return Indian eves. It appears that the board somehow completely forgot about Mithali’s Khel Ratna recommendation.
Former India opener Virender Sehwag and celebrated athlete P T Usha are in a 12-member Committee which has been handed the job to pick this year’s Khel Ratna and Arjuna awardees.
The Committee, to be headed by Justice (retd) C K Thakkar, will meet on August 3 to select this year’s awardees.