National Sports Awards 2023: Full List Of Arjuna, Khel Ratna And Dronacharya Award Winners

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards 2023 on Wednesday. The awardees will receive their awards from the President Droupadi Murmu at a specially organised function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024.

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 was selected for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Citing sources from the ministry, PTI reported that 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.

Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the Government has decided to confer awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches and entities:

'Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award' is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over the previous four years.

• Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty - Badminton

• Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj - Badminton

'Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games' is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.

‘Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games’ is given to coaches for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and for enabling sportspersons to excel in International events.

Regular Category

• Lalit Kumar - Wrestling

• R. B. Ramesh - Chess

• Mahaveer Prasad Saini - Para Athletics

• Shivendra Singh - Hockey

• Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar - Mallakhamb

Lifetime Category

• Jaskirat Singh Grewal - Golf

• Bhaskaran E - Kabaddi

• Jayanta Kumar Pushilal - Table Tennis

'Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games' is given to honour sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and who continue to contribute to the promotion of sports events after their retirement.

• Manjusha Kanwar - Badminton

• Vineet Kumar Sharma - Hockey

• Kavitha Selvaraj - Kabaddi

The overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments is given the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy.

• Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar - Overall winner University

• Lovely Professional University, Punjab - 1st runner-up University

• Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra -2nd runner-up University

The applications were invited online and sportspersons/coaches/entities were permitted to self-apply through a dedicated Online Portal.

A large number of applications/nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar, Retd. Judge, Supreme Court of India and consisting of members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.