Khel Ratna continues to elude sprint queen

Khel Ratna continues to elude sprint queen
RAVI MENON

KOZHIKODE, JULY 2: There is one name conspicuous by its absence in the list of sportspersons to have won the coveted Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, since its inception six years ago -- PT Usha.

It may sound strange, but the Union Sports Ministry has not yet found the track queen, one of the greatest sportspersons produced by the country, as an eligible candidate for the award. Interestingly, this time, the ministry has even overlooked the Kerala government's strong recommendation in favour of the Olympian.

There is no denying the fact that Olympian hockey player Dhanraj Pillay who has been named for the 1999 award by the Union Sports Minister SS Dhindsa on Friday, rightly deserved the honour. Pillay who was kept out of the Indian team for months after criticising the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), is now playing the German league with the Stuttgart Kickers.

The question is why Usha, a world class athlete in her heyday, could not be rated on par with the likes of Viswanathan Anand, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, Sachin Tendulkar, Kunjarani Devi and Karnam Malleswari, the former recepients of the award.

Usha's name was not considered for the award even in 1998, the year which saw her make a remarkable comeback at the international level, by winning a gold, a silver and two bronze medals at the Asian Track and Field Meet held in Fukuoka.

Interestingly, Usha is still the highest positioned Indian athlete in the latest rating list of International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF). A recipient of Padma Shree (1985), Arjuna (1985) and the Indian Olympic Association's Woman Athlete of the Millennium award (2000), Usha had also been adjudged the best Asian athlete in 1984, '85, '86, '87 and '89. The Rajiv Khel Ratna is perhaps the only major honour missing from Usha's glittering showcase.

The Arjuna awards are likely to spark protests this year too, mainly from cricketers and footballers who do not even figure among the list of awardees, while representatives of many lesser-known sports have found favour with the ministry. According to the minister, no cricketers were chosen for the honour, as the ministry did not get any nominations from the cricket board.

Footballers were yet again given a raw deal by the ministry. It may be recalled that there was a big hue and cry when the ministry decided to award the Arjuna to Baichung Bhutia last year, overlooking some of the more eligible candidates like Parminder Singh, VP Sathyan, Sudip Chatterjee and IM Vijayan.