India’s biggest sporting honour Khel Ratna award which was named initially after the Former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi who is known for inspiring youngsters towards sports and now the name has been replaced with Major Dhyan Chand Award.
Major Dhyan Chand is one of the biggest sporting icons of India as the one who was popularly known as “Wizard of Hockey” as pre-Independence Dhyan Chand helped India which was called “British India” to win a gold medal in Olympics.
Major Dhyan Chand is also considered as one of the biggest dribbling players in the history of world hockey and even today if you look at the top 10 hockey players of all time in that list Dhyan Chand will remain on the top.
This change of renaming Khel Ratna award to Major Dhyan Chand mainly came due to the superb performance of both Men’s and Women’s Hockey team in Olympics where the Men’s team won bronze medal after a period of 41 years and the women’s team lost the Bronze medal match in one of the biggest sporting event in the world.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi confirmed the news of Khel Ratna award name to be changed with Major Dhyan Chand on his official Twitter account based on the opinion of sports lover from all over the world.
“Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award! 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 tweeted.
The one who wins the prestigious award carries a prize money of Rs 25 lakh.
Cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal, table tennis star Manika Batra and para-athlete Thangavelu Mariyappan received the Khel Ratna award in 2020.
