World Cup Sensation Mohammed Shami Nominated for Arjuna Award

NEW DELHI: Pacer Mohammed Shami, one of the architects of India’s near successful World Cup campaign, has been nominated for this year’s Arjuna Award, while men’s doubles badminton pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were selected for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Shami, 33, had a spectacular run in the ODI World Cup, where India finished second best, losing to Australia in the final.

As per the ministry’s sources, a special request was made by the BCCI to the sports ministry to include Shami’s name as originally he didn’t feature in the list of the country’s second-highest sporting honour.

Shami was the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup, with 24 wickets to his name in seven outings.

After sitting out of the first four games, Shami shone bright when given the opportunity, claiming 24 wickets at an average of just 5.26.

Besides Shami, 16 other sportspersons have been nominated for the Arjuna Award. They include men’s hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Mohammad Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, wrestler Antim Panghal and paddler Ayhika Mukherjee among others.

There are five nominations for the Dronacharya Award — Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (para athletics), Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess) and Shivendra Singh (hockey).

Kavita (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton) and Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey) are the nominees for the Dhyan Chand Lifetime award. (TOI)