The Cricket Board (BCCI) has recommended the names of young batsman Virat Kohli for the prestigious Arjuna award and former captain Sunil Gavaskar for the Dhyanchand lifetime achievement honour to the sports ministry.
Confirming this, BCCI sources said that today was the last date for recommending the awards to the sports ministry.
"We have recommended only these two names," the sources informed making it clear that no cricketer's name has been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award this year.
Gavaskar, the only Indian cricketer recently named by former England umpire Dickie Bird in his select World Test XI, retired from the game in 1987 after a glorious 16-year-long career during which he became the first in the world to score 10,000 Test runs.
In all, he played in 125 Tests and was a member of the victorious Indian World Cup winning team led by Kapil Dev in 1983 and then led the country to another major one-day title, the World Championship of Cricket in Australia two years later.
Gavaskar, who will turn 64 on July 10, is currently a television commentator and a columnist.
