List of cricketers who received the Khel Ratna Award (Updated list)

The Khel Ratna Award which is officially known as the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Award after the Indian Hockey maestro Major Dhyanchand, is considered by many to be the best hockey player of all time.. This is the highest sporting award the country has to offer for the athletes. 

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It was also formerly known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. It is awarded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India every year to athletes of various sports for sporting excellence. 

A commission established by the Ministry chooses the recipients, who are recognised for their "spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports over a period of four years" on a global scale. As of 2020, the prize consists of a cash prize of ₹25 lakhs, a certificate, and a medallion.

Multiple-time World Champion and Chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand was the first person to receive the prestigious award in 1991-92. Shooter Abhinav Bindra, who was eighteen at the time, was the youngest person to win the award in 2001. 

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Usually given to just one athlete per year, there have been a few instances in which more than one laureate received the award in the same year, where 2024 is the same case. The years 2008 and 2014 have been exceptions in the process where no athlete received the award for any sporting category.

Athletics, badminton, billiards, boxing, chess, cricket, field hockey, football, gymnastics, para-athletics, para-badminton, para-shooting, shooting, snooker, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting, and yacht racing are among the sixteen sport disciplines that have produced 62 recipients of the award as of 2024. 

D Gukesh for chess, Manu Bhaker for shooting, Harmanpreet Singh for hockey, and Praveen Kumar in para-athletics have been named as the recipients of the award for the 2024 year. 

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Let’s look at all the cricketers who have received this prestigious award in their lifetime

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