Former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia, a member of the National Sports Committee, stated on Tuesday that the gold medalist Neeraj Chopra of the Tokyo Olympics entitled of the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award this year.
Chopra had thrown the javelin for a distance of 87.58 meters to earn India’s first gold medal in track and field events at the Olympics this year.
“This time the committee will have to face a challenge because there are many players who are deserving for awards, not this time, every time the election committee faces challenges. But this time task will be harder as we have a lot of medallists and in my opinion, the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award will go to Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra as he brought India its first gold in track and field events at the Olympics,” Bhutia said to ANI.
Bhutia commented on SAI’s 55th Governing Body Meeting, “It was a very good meeting and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has good knowledge about sports. The meeting was very productive. We discussed many points in the meeting and we will also focus on how to develop a sports culture in the country and look to develop more coaches at the grassroots level, we discussed we have to look after and manage our grounds, not stadiums because grounds produce many sportspeople and we also need to ensure that we appoint more officers who are responsible for scouting talent from small places of the country.”
Bhutia, on questioned about Indian football, stated, “There should be long term planning. Lately, we have not been able to do well, it will take time.”
