Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020

Indian cricket team vice-captain and opener Rohit Sharma is one of 4 athletes who have been recommended for India’s top sporting honor – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Along with Rohit Sharma, Asian Games Gold Medalist Vinesh Phogat, Table Tennis Champion Manika Batra and Paralympic Gold Medalist Mariappan Thangavelu were recommended for the Khel Ratna Award.

The move comes after the National Sports Awards selection committee met on Tuesday to decide on awards for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and other national sports.
The committee, which includes Virender Sehwag and Sardar Singh, met at the Sports Authority of India headquarters in New Delhi. This is only the first time since 2016 that the names of 4 athletes have been recommended for the award. Rio Olympic medalists PV Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar and Sakshi Malik as well as marksman Jitu Rai collectively received the award in 2016.
Rohit Sharma will become the fourth cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli to receive the Khel Ratna award.
Tendulkar was the first Indian cricketer to win the Khel Ratna Award when he did so in 1998. Dhoni received the sporting honor after leading India to the T20 World Cup in 2007, while Virat Kohli won the award with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu in 2018.
Vinesh Phogat became the first female fighter to win a gold medal at the Asian Games in 2018, while star paddler Manika Batra had an extraordinary year in 2018 in which she won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and bronze at the Asian Games in women’s singles.
Meanwhile, Mariappan Thangavelu made history at the Paralympic Games in Rio by winning the gold medal in the high jump (T42).
The Khel Ratna Prize was won by Paralympic athlete Deepa Malik and wrestler Bajrang Punia in 2019.
The Ministry of Sports of the Indian government announces many sports awards such as Arjuna Prize, Eklavya Prize, Major Dhyana Chand Prize, Dronacharya Prize and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Prize.
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Prize is the highest sporting honor of the Republic of India. The winner of the Khel Ratna prize receives a prize of 7.5 lac rupees. This prize is awarded each year to the athletes who are the pride of the country at international events.

List of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award winners 2020

Player Name	Sport	Year
1.Viswanathan Anand	Chess	1992
2.Geet Sethi	Billiards	1993
3.Homi de Motivala and PK Garg	Yachting	1995
4.Karnam Malleswari	Weightlifting	1996
5.Kunjurani Devi and Leander Paes	Weightlifting, Lawn Tennis	1997
6.Sachin Tendulkar	Cricket	1998
7.Jyotirmoyee Sikandar	Athletics	1999
8.Dhanraj Pillai	Hockey	2000
9.Pullela Gopichand	Badminton	2001
10.Abhinav Bindra	Shooting	2002
11.Anjali Bhagwat and K. M. Binamol	Shooting, Athletics	2003
12.Anju Bobby George	Athletics	2004
13.Rajya Vardhan ,Singh Rathore	Shooting	2005
14.Pankaj Advani	Billiards and Snooker	2006
15.Manavjit Singh Sandhu	Shooting	2007
16. Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Cricket	2008
17.M.C. Marikom, Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar	Boxing, Boxing, Wrestling	2009
18.Saina Nehwal	Badminton	2010
19.Gagan Narang	Shooting	2011
20.Vijay Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt	Shooting, Wrestling	2012
21.Ranjan Sodhi	Shooting	2013
22.Sania Mirza	Lawn Tennis	2015
23. P. V. Sindhu, Deepa Kamikar, Sakshi Bhai and Jitu Rai	Badminton, Gymnastics, Wrestling, Shooting	2016
24.Devendra Jhajaria, Sardar Singh	Javelin throw, Hockey	2017
25.Virat Kohli, Mirabai Chanu	Cricket, Weightlifting	2018
26.Bajrang Punia Deepa Malik	wrestling Athletics	2019
27.Rohit Sharma (nominated)	Cricket	2020

Some interesting facts about Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award are

It is the highest sporting honour of the Republic of India.
It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
This award was instituted in 1991-92.
Chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was the first recipient of this award.
From 1992 to 2019, 36 sportsmen got this award.
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award can be given a maximum of three persons in a year.
Rohit Sharma will only be the fourth cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, just retired M.S. Dhoni, and Virat Kohli, ato be conferred with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.