The BCCI has decided to recommend the names of former Indian captain Rahul Dravid and opener Gautam Gambhir's for the prestigious Padma Bhusan and Padma Shri awards respectively.
A report in DNA says that according to a BCCI official, president N Srinivasan and secretary Sanjay Jagdale were supposed to discuss the issue and forward the names to the government.
"Dravid and Gambhir's names were discussed earlier and president and secretary were to take a final call in this regard. The last date for filing nominations was August 15 and the names have been sent" official was quoted in the report.
Padma Bhusan award is the counrty's third highest civilain award after Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhusan.
Sachin Tendulkar is the only cricketer to receive the second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhusan while nine cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Vinoo Mankad and Lala Amarnath have received Padma Bhusan.
Meanwhile a report in Mid-Day says that Ian Chapell is mighty impressed with Unmukt Chand’s captaincy apart from the ability to hit the ball to a distance.
Chand is a good captain. He tends to stay ahead of the game, which is an important part of captaincy and in other words, he is proactive, not reactive.
He is technically a good batsman and so on, but to see such power from a little guy is quite amazing. The sixes he hit, and not just in the final - he hit them in some other games as well – were terrific.
Obviously, he is a very good timer of the ball, but a couple of times he cleared the boundary a hell of a long way and that is surprising,” Mid-Day quoted the former Australian skipper.
