Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award Renamed After Hockey Great Dhyan Chand

New Delhi:

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the very best sporting honour of India, will probably be renamed Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced right this moment. The renaming recognises the last word hockey hero and legend of the game, Dhyan Chand.

The Prime Minister mentioned the transfer was based mostly on the quite a few requests he obtained from throughout the nation.

“I’ve been getting many requests from residents throughout India to call the Khel Ratna Award after Main Dhyan Chand. I thank them for his or her views.

“Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be referred to as the Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award!” tweeted the Prime Minister with #JaiHind.

I’ve been getting many requests from residents throughout India to call the Khel Ratna Award after Main Dhyan Chand. I thank them for his or her views.

Respecting their sentiment, the Khel Ratna Award will hereby be referred to as the Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award!

Jai Hind! pic.twitter.com/zbStlMNHdq

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 6, 2021

The change additionally comes on the day, India ladies’s hockey workforce narrowly missed out on a bronze medal drawing curtains on its spirited present on the Toyko Olypmpics. A day earlier than, the boys’s hockey workforce gained an Olympic bronze after a wait of 41 years.

“The distinctive efficiency of the Males’s and Girls’s Hockey Staff has captured the creativeness of our total nation. There’s a renewed curiosity in the direction of Hockey that’s rising throughout the size and breadth of India. It is a very constructive signal for the approaching occasions,” the Prime Minister mentioned in one other tweet, simply earlier than saying the brand new identify for the award.

Dhyan Chand, whose birthday is well known as Nationwide Sports activities Day, gained three Olympic golds for the nation.

Inaugurated in 1991-92, the award contains a medallion, a certificates, and a money prize of Rs 25 lakh. The primary recipient of the Khel Ratna was chess legend Viswanathan Anand. A number of the  winners lately embrace cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, ladies’s hockey workforce captain Rani Rampal, amongst others.