Khel Ratna Award renamed as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award

The award was earlier named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi

The nation's highest sporting honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award has been renamed after hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday.

Taking to Twitter, Modi said he had received many requests from citizens across India to name the Khel Ratna Award after Major Dhyan Chand.

“Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award,” the prime minister said here.

He said Major Dhyan Chand was among India’s foremost sportspersons who brought honour and pride for the country.

“It is fitting that our nation’s highest sporting honour will be named after him,” Modi said.

The renaming of the award came at a time when the Indian men's hockey team made a comeback on the world hockey stage by reaching the semi-finals of the Olympics after 41 years.

Congress terms move 'myopic politics'

Congress hit out at Modi for dragging celebrated sportspersons to fulfill his “myopic political motives”.

“Now that a new beginning has been made, we sincerely hope that Modi ji will announce changing the name of Narendra Modi Stadium and Arun Jaitley Stadium and rechristen it after the legendary sportspersons like Milkha Singh, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, Leander Paes, P T Usha, Mary Kom, Abhinav Bindra and many many others,” Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

Instituted in 1991-1992, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is given to a sportsperson to recognise the spectacular and most outstanding achievements over a period of four years preceding the year during which the honour is bestowed.

The Khel Ratna award comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh. The first recipient of the award was chess legend Viswanathan Anand. Some of the winners in recent years include cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal, table tennis player Manika Batra among others.