Former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rio Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, and her coach Pullela Gopichand will be conferred with the Padma bhushan – India’s third highest civilian honour – on Republic Day at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as the government of India cleared his name in the sports category.
Dhoni’s name for the award was recommended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Awarded the Padma Shri award in 2009, Dhoni led the team to two World Cup victories and emerged as India’s most successful skipper across all three formats. In 2007, he was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the Sports Ministry.
Dhoni led Team India in 60 Tests, winning a record 27 (45 per cent) of them. He led the team in 199 ODIs and won 110 of them. Of the 72 T20Is led by him, the team led by him won 41 matches.
On the other hand, the Padma Vibhushan award – India’s second-highest civilian award – has not been received by a sportsman since Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Edmund Hillary, and Viswanathan Anand won it in 2008
The 21-year-old shuttler PV Sindhu, from Gopichand’s academy, clinched the Malaysian Grand Prix title last year before producing a brilliant run to the final of the Rio Olympics, where she lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin.
Hindustan Times, in its report, cited government sources saying that around 120 have been chosen for the Padma awards, a significant number of them being ‘unsung’ heroes. The awards will be announced on Wednesday.
