Sports India

Rahul Dravid can well be the second cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar to win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award after the BCCI nominated the Team India captain for country’s highest sports award.

BCCI has also nominated emerging allrounder Irfan Pathan and dashing southpaw Yuvraj Singh for the Arjuna award for the year 2005-06.

Since its inception, only one cricketer, Tendulkar (1997-98) has succeeded in laying fingers on the Khel Ratna award, while other winners include chess wizard Viswanathan Anand, the first recipient, cue ace Geet Sethi, Olympic medallist lifter Karnam Malleswari, mercurial hockey forward Dhanraj Pillay, All-England title winning shuttler Pullela Gopichand, star long jumper Anju Bobby George and the country’s first Olympic silver medallist, post-independence, marksman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.