'Feel Broken': Ex-Khel Ratna Winner Sakshi Malik Reacts To Arjuna Snub

Cricketer Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma, Indian Olympic athlete Dutee Chand, Indian Olympian shooter Manu Bhaker among 27 sportsperson will be conferred with Arjuna Award.

Indian freestyle wrestler and Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik on Friday expressed how disappointed and miffed she was with the Sports Ministry of India for deciding against bestowing her with the Arjuna Awardee for the year 2020.

Malik, who won bronze medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics to become the first Indian woman wrestler to win a medalist the Olympics, has already been conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour.

The freestyle wrestler came down heavily on the Sports Ministry for leaving her name out of the final list of Arjuna awardees.

"I always wanted to be called as Arjuna awardee Sakshi Malik. The athletes do everything to win such accolades. He or she wants to win all the awards. That's what motivates us.

"I don't know what I should do to win the Arjuna award. I am happy to be conferred with the Khel Ratna award in 2016. And I respect it too. But I always wanted Arjuna. That was my dream," a fuming Sakshi said.

Last week, the Justice (retd) Mukundakam Sharma-led selection committee had recommended 29 names for the Arjuna award to the Sports Ministry.

Cricketer Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma, Indian Olympic athlete Dutee Chand, Indian Olympian shooter Manu Bhaker among 27 sportsperson will be conferred with Arjuna Award.

Athletes who will receive Arjuna award this year are: Atanu Das (archery), Dutee Chand (athletics), Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Chandrasekhar Shetty (badminton), Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (basketball), Subedar Manish Kaushik, Lovlina Borgohain (boxing), Ishant Sharma, Deepti Sharma (cricket), Sawant Ajay Anant (equestrian), Sandesh Jhingan (football), Aditi Ashok (golf), Akashdeep Singh, Deepika (hockey), Deepak (kabaddi), Kale Sarika Sudhakar (Kho Kho), Dattu Baban Bhokanal (rowing), Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary (shooting), Madhurika Suhas Patkar (table tennis), Divij Sharan (tennis), Shiva Keshavan (winter sports), Divya Kakran, Rahul Aware (wrestling), Suyash Narayan Jadhav (para swimming), Sandeep (para athletics) and Manish Narwal (para shooting).