Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and snooker player Pankaj Advani were on Thursday named in the list of 12 people to be awarded with the prestigious Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award.
Along with Dhoni and Advani, Philipose Mar Chrysostom - Others (Spiritualism), Alexander Kadakin (Foreigner/Posthumous) - Public Affairs,
Ramachandran Nagaswamy - Others (Archaeology), Ved Prakash Nanda - Literature and Education, Laxman Pai - Art (Painting), Arvind Parikh - Art (Music), Sharda Sinha - Art (Music), Ilayaraja - Art (Music), Ghulam Mustafa Khan - Art (Music), Parameswaran Parameswaran - Literature and Education were coferred with the award this year.
Dhoni, 36, is India's most successful captain - having led the country to all the three ICC trophies (ICC World T20 2007, ICC ODI World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013). Dhoni is also regarded as one of the greatest finishers of the limited-overs format.
Dhoni was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007 and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.
Meanwhile, Advani has 18 world titles and was awarded with the Arjuna Award in 2004, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2006, and Padma Shri in 2009.
KIDAMBI SRIKANTH, SOMDEV DEVVARMAN IN PADMA SHRI LIST
Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman and India's first Paralympic gold medalist, Murlikant Petkar were conferred with the Padma Shri award - the country's fourth-highest civilian award.
Petkar won an individual gold medal in the 1972 Summer Paralympics, in Heidelberg, Germany. He set a world record in the 50 m freestyle swimming event, at 37.33 seconds.
In the same games he participated in javelin, precision javelin throw and slalom. He was a finalist in all three events.
Currently ranked third in the BWF rankings, Srikanth is looked upon as a future Olympic champion shuttler.
The 24-year-old shuttler's real rise came last season when he won as many as six titles including four Super Series titles. He won the French Open, Denmark Open, Australian Open, Indonesia Open, India Open and China Open.
A product of Pullela Gopichand badminton academy in Hyderabad, Srikkanth also finished runners-up in last year's Singapore Open.
Manipuri weightlifter Mirabai Chanu claim to fame includes silver medal in the women's 48kg weight class at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.
But her real claim to fame came last year when she lifted a world record of 194kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) to win the gold in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, United States.
(With agencies inputs)
