The entire nation will celebrate the National Sports Day on August 29 to commemorate 115th birth anniversary of Indian Hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. Ahead of the prestigious occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award will hereby be renamed as 'Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award', respecting the sentiments of citizens across the nation. The Khel Ratna award is the country's highest Sports honour. The Khel Ratna award was given for the first time in 1991-92.
"I have been getting many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand. I thank them for their views," PM Modi tweeted on Friday.
"Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award! Jai Hind," he added.
"Major Dhyan Chand was among India’s foremost sportspersons who brought honour and pride for India. It is fitting that our nation’s highest sporting honour will be named after him," he further wrote.
The announcement comes after India's men's hockey team won a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. It was India's first medal win in hockey at Olympics since the 1980 Moscow Olympics. On the other hand, despite losing the bronze-medal 3-4 against World No. 4 Great Britain, Rani Rampal-led Women's Hockey team won hearts of fans all over the world with their best-ever finish in the history of Olympics.