National Sports Day: Will Dhyan Chand ever get a Bharat Ratna?

August 29 is celebrated across the country as National Sports Day in memory of Major Dhyan Chand, widely regarded as the greatest field hockey player in the history of the game

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New Delhi, August 29: His name adorns the country's highest sports award, his birthday August 29 is celebrated as National Sports Day, and many stadiums across India stand in his honour.

But despite all the appeals, RTls, and public movements, the Bharat Ratna continues to elude the hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.

In 2021, the Centre renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. But many wonder, why despite the public sentiment the country's highest civilian honour continues to elude the man who put Indian hockey on the world map.

Hockey India president and three-time Olympian Dilip Tirkey led a movement at Jantar Mantar in 2016 with this demand and also raised the matter in Parliament, but every attempt failed.

"Dhyanchand was the greatest player in the world in his time. I always say that hockey is the sport which got us out first Olympic gold medals and Major Dhyan Chand’s contribution is incomparable," Tirkey told PTI. "If the country's biggest sports award is named after him, the National Stadium is named after him, then why not he is given a Bharat Ratna.”