Vinesh Phogat and Rohit Sharma
Indian batsman and limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma is among the four athletes who will receive this year's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award -- the country's highest sporting honour.
Besides Rohit, woman paddler Manika Batra, Rio Paralympic gold-winning high jumper Mariappan Thangavelu, women's hockey captain Rani Rampal and decorated wrestler Vinesh Phogat will also receive the award.
The five names were recommended on Tuesday by a committee, comprising the likes of Virender Sehwag and former hockey captain Sardar Singh which met at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) headquarters in New Delhi.
The 33-year-old Rohit will only be the fourth cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, just-retired Mahendra Singh Dhoni and current skipper Virat Kohli to be conferred with the Khel Ratna.
Tendulkar was the first Indian cricketer to get the honour in 1998, followed by Dhoni in 2007 and Kohli in 2018. Kohli won it jointly with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu.
While Rohit has been recognised for his ever-rising accomplishments with the bat, Vinesh has been rewarded for her gold medals in the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games besides a bronze in the 2019 Asian Wrestling Championships.
Thangavelu is being rewarded for his gold medal in the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the T42 high jump category.
T42 applies to athletes with single above the knee amputations or a disability that is comparable.
Star paddler Manika was recommended for her remarkable performance in 2018, a year during which she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal and Asian Games bronze in women's singles.
Rani is the lone female hockey player to have been recommended for the honour. Before Rani, only Dhanraj Pillay (2000) and Sardar Singh (2017) won the prestigious award. Sardar, incidentally, was a part of the 12-member selection committee this year.
In a first, this year's National Sports Awards ceremony, which normally held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, is likely to be conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with all the winners logging in from their respective places to hear their names being announced on August 29.
August 29 is celebrated as the National Sports Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.
The Khel Ratna comprises a medallion, a certificate, and a cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh.
(with PTI inputs)
