BCCI announces cash award of Rs 25 lakh to Abhinav Bindra

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a cash award of Rs 25 lakh to Abhinav Bindra who won the men’s 10 metres air rifle event at Beijing. Bindra won India’s first ever individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
 
"Hearty congratulations to Abhinav Bindra on winning India's first-ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. He has made the country proud. His achievement heralds a new era for Indian sports," Sharad Pawar, the BCCI President said.
 
The BCCI has got together with the Ministry of Sports to set up a corpus of Rs 50 crore to support the country's medal prospects, in the disciplines of Swimming, Boxing, Archery, Judo and Wrestling, for the next three years, up to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
 
This venture apart, the BCCI has been funding Aditya Jagtap (Squash) and Karan Rastogi (Tennis), as far as their training and participation in international events are concerned.
 
Incidentally, the BCCI had approved a proposal to support Abhinav Bindra on similar lines, and was in correspondence with him in this regard.