New Delhi: The BCCI on Wednesday nominated former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the Padma Bhushan-the country’s third highest civilian honour.
Dhoni was the unanimous choice of the BCCI for his contribution to cricket as they decided to send only one name for the Padma Awards this year, confirmed a senior BCCI official.
“Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been nominated by the BCCI for the Padma Bhushan award. It was a unanimous decision by the members. He has been one of the greatest names in contemporary cricket and the most appropriate choice of the Indian cricket board,” said BCCI acting president CK Khanna on Wednesday, as quoted by PTI.
The wicketkeeper batsman was the automatic choice for the nominations as he has had a remarkable impact on Indian cricket, leading the country to two World Cups ( 2007 World T20 and 2011 50-over World Cup). Not only this, but the Jharkhand man has also tasted Champions Trophy success, leading them to the title in 2013.
Khanna further added, “He is one of our greatest ODI cricketer with nearly 10,000 runs in ODIs. Not many players have played 90 Test matches. There is no one better than him, who could have been nominated.”
Dhoni, who is 36 at the moment has amassed a total of 9737 runs in 302 ODI’s with 10 hundreds and a total of 4876 runs in 90 test matches with six tons.
In the shortest version of the game, he has scored 1212 runs in 78 games so far.
Recently, the right-hander also scored his 100th international fifty.
Behind the stumps, Dhoni has been one of the greatest so far in world cricket as he has a total of 584 catches across all formats (256 in Tests, 285 in ODI’s and 43 in T20I’s) besides effecting 163 stumpings.
Dhoni has already been honoured with the prestigious Arjuna award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri award. If India’s most successful captain ends up winning the Padma Bhushan, he would be the 11th Indian cricketer to have received the award.
Of late, Dhoni has answered back his critics in style and after a good series with both the bat and keeping gloves in Sri Lanka, he has begun the series against Australia with a crucial 79-run knock in the first ODI.
Significant names in cricket like Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Chandu Borde, Prof. DB Deodhar, Col CK Nayudu and Lala Amarnath have been recipients of this prestigious award.
Raja Bhalindra Singh of Patiala who played 13 first class matches, and Vijaya Anand-the Maharaja of Vizianagram who was India’s captain in their 1936 tour of England also have received the award.