Mithali Raj and Ravichandran Ashwin recommended for Khel Ratna by BCCI

It remains to be seen if Mithali Raj is chosen by the Sports Ministry-appointed panel in an Olympic year. She completed 22 years in international cricket last week. The 38 year-old is also the leading run getter in ODIs with more than 7000 runs.

India's Mithali Raj and Ravichandran Ashwin have been recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna this year by the BCCI.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to recommend women’s cricket great Mithali Raj and off-spinner R Ashwin for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, country’s highest sporting honour. For Arjuna Award, the Board will send the names of opener Shikhar Dhawan, who was ignored last year, KL Rahul and paceman Jasprit Bumrah. “No women cricketer has been nominated for Arjuna. Mithali’s name has been recommended for Khel Ratna,” a BCCI official told news agency PTI on Wednesday (June 30).

It remains to be seen if Mithali is chosen by the Sports Ministry-appointed panel in an Olympic year. She completed 22 years in international cricket last week. The 38 year-old is also the leading run getter in ODIs with more than 7000 runs.

Ashwin, who is already an Arjuna awardee like Mithali, has also been a consistent performer for India in Test cricket. He has taken 413 wickets in 79 Tests besides 150 and 42 scalps in ODIs and T20s though he doesn't play for India in the shorter formats. Dhawan, who will be captaining India in the upcoming limited overs series in Sri Lanka, is a frontrunner for Arjuna.

The 35-year-old southpaw has scored 5,977 runs in 142 ODIs besides 2315 and 1673 Test and T20 runs respectively.

Meanwhile, Former India cricketer Saba Karim, who was also BCCI general manager for cricket operations until December last year, believes that to make women’s cricket grow faster a ‘more professional approach’ and a ‘separate plan from men’s cricket’ were the key requirements.

The women’s team, captained by Mithali Raj, recently drew the one-off Test with hosts England and are scheduled to also play a one-off D/N Test against Australia in September beside a white-ball series.

Karim said that while it was a great start, more needed to be done. “It is a good start, but there needs to be a solid plan, a plan different to that for the boys and men, for things to move forward and for us to build on it. I feel the way to go forward is to make it much more professional, and growth of women`s cricket has to be different from boys’ cricket, and the planning has to be different.

“One has to have a different plan, a constructive plan, with lots of outreach programmes,” Karim, the former Indian cricket board women’s cricket head, told website ESPNcricinfo.

(with agency inputs)