The Indian Cricket Team’s captain, Virat Kohli and the weightlifting world champion, Mirabai Chanu, received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award from the President of India Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.
The proud players were honoured with a medal, a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 7.5 lakhs. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is an award given to those glorious players who have represented India in sports for four years.
Apart from the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, there were other categories like the Arjuna Awards, Dronacharya Awards and the Dhyanchand Awards to honour the players. Twenty players who were given the Arjuna Award were awarded statuettes, certificates and a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakhs.
In addition to this, Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2018 and Abul Kalam Azad Award were also given by the President of India.
The Indian Cricket Team’s captain, Virat Kohli, is considered as the world’s best test batsman, according to International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings. The spectacular performances of Virat Kohli with a record of 6,147 runs in 71 test matches are what makes him deserving of the award. He holds a track record of 23 centuries and 9,779 runs in a total of 211 One Day International (ODI) matches.
Mirabai Chanu was also honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award as she made India proud by bagging a gold medal in the 48 kg weightlifting category at the World Weightlifting Championships last year.
The President honoured all the awardees at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.