NEW DELHI: The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, India’s highest sporting honour, will have no recipient for 2025, with the government not recommending any sportsperson for the prestigious award. It is only the third time since the award was instituted in 1991-92 that no athlete has been chosen, after similar instances in 2008 and 2014.
The recommendations, cleared by the National Sports Awards selection committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, were sent to sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya for final assent. The sports ministry announced the National Sports Awards 2025 on Tuesday.
The development comes after the possibility of compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam and India’s women’s World Cup-winning cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana being considered for the Khel Ratna was discussed by the committee at its meeting in New Delhi on December 12, 2025. However, none of the names found their way into the final recommendations. TOI was the first to break the story on December 12, 2025.
The issue of the two leading Indian women cricketers was discussed at length, with the absence of a specific points-based system to assess cricket performances being a factor. In such cases, the committee generally relies on nominations from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). No nominations were made for the two cricketers. Mohammed Shami was the last cricketer to receive the Khel Ratna, in 2023.
The Khel Ratna, known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna until August 2021, carries a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh, a medallion and a citation. While the top honour remained vacant, 17 sportspersons were named for the Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in sports and games.
The list includes athletics stars Tejaswin Shankar, Muhammed Ajmal V and Priyanka Goswami; badminton players Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand; boxers Narender; chess players Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Divya Jitendra Deshmukh; deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth; hockey players Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal; kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja; para-shooter Rudransh Khandelwal; para-athlete Ekta Bhyan; rower Arvind Singh; and shooter Akhil Sheoran.
Deshmukh’s selection comes in the wake of her historic triumph at the FIDE Women’s World Cup, where she became the first Indian woman to win the title. Shankar, meanwhile, has been recognised following his performances in athletics, including his silver medal at the 2023 Asian Games.
The government has also conferred one Arjuna Award in the lifetime category on footballer I Arumainayagam.
In the Dronacharya Awards, the regular category honours went to athletics coach Parveer Singh, boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav and shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan. The lifetime category honours went to boxing coach Dharmendra Singh Yadav and wrestling coach Virender Kumar.
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for sports promotion and development has been awarded to Army Paralympic Node, Pune. The awards recognise sporting excellence, coaching contribution and promotion of sports. Applications were invited through an online portal, with sportspersons, coaches and entities permitted to self-apply. A large number of applications were received and assessed by the selection committee comprising eminent sportspersons, people with experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.
