Gautam Gambhir For Arjuna Awards  Gautam Gambhir |
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday (April 29) nominated opener Gautam Gambhir and women's team captain Jhulan Goswami for the Arjuna Awards. BCCI's Working Committee took the decision of nominating the two players at a meeting held in Mumbai on Wednesday. Over the last one year, Gambhir has scored 1,579 Test runs at an average of 75.19. In the ODIs he has scored 1,494 runs at 46.38. Gambhir played his most crucial innings at Napier in New Zealand where he hit a match saving 137 in the second Test that helped India to win a series in that country after 41 years.
The captain of women's cricket team, Jhulan Goswami is third highest wicket-taker in ODI. Under her captaincy, the Indian women's team finished third in the recently held World Cup. While announcing the names of Gambhir and Goswami in a press conference, BCCI President Shashank Manohar declined to comment on Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh issue.
Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh were conferred with the Padmashree award but both the players missed the award-giving ceremony. The conduct of the players triggered much angry reactions and the sports ministry recommended that the players who skip such important ceremony without issuing prior information should be stripped of the honour.
