The Arjuna Award for cricket in India is given by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for outstanding achievements in the field of cricket on the international stage.

The award accounts for the performance of the sportsperson over the preceding four years along with “qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.”

The winner of the Arjuna Award gets a bronze statue of Arjuna, who was an adept archer and one of the Pandavas from the Indian mythology epic Mahabharata. Winners of the Arjuna Award receive a certificate, a ceremonial dress and a cash prize of INR 15 lakh. The honour - which is bestowed usually during the National Sports Day held on August 29 every year.

To date, 58 cricketers have been honoured with the Arjuna Award, including 12 women. Some of the notable names to have received the Arjuna Award for cricket include former captains like Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

Here’s looking back at a few winners:

Salim Durani: First Indian cricketer to receive Arjuna Award

The first Indian cricketer to receive the Arjuna Award was Salim Durani. He was honoured in 1961. The all-rounder who was a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and was known for his hard-hitting prowess was, in fact, born in Afghanistan and played 29 Tests for India, scoring 1202 runs and picking 75 wickets. Durani became the cult-figure following his exploits against England in 1961–62 where he picked eight and 10 wickets at Kolkata and Chennai respectively.

Shantha Rangaswamy: First woman cricketer to win Arjuna Award

The first woman cricketer to have received the Arjuna Award was Shantha Rangaswamy in 1976. She featured in 16 Tests and 19 ODIs for India from 1976 to 1991. She is also the first female cricketer to receive a lifetime achievement award from the BCCI. Under her captaincy, the Indian women’s cricket team recorded their first-ever Test win in 1976 against the West Indies. This was the same year when she became the recipient of the Arjuna award.

Gundappa Viswanath: The second-best non-century knock

Gundappa Viswanath, an Arjuna Award winner in 1977-78, made his Test debut for India in 1969 against Australia and had a brief stint as a captain between 1979-80. He served as a captain for just two matches and while India failed to win either of them, his exploits earned him plenty of praise. Viswanath peaked in the mid-70s, especially when India hosted a mighty West Indies for a five-match Test series. Against a bowling attack that comprised the much-feared Andy Roberts, Viswanath scored 97 out of his team’s total of 190; an innings which was regarded as one of the best performances by an Indian against. His innings led India to a 100-run victory over West Indies. 

His unbeaten 97 was also ranked as the second-best non-century innings by Wisden 100. During his career, Viswanath had little difficulties in facing the stern bowling attacks of West Indies and Australia; opponents against whom he averaged more than 50.

Mohammad Azharuddin: Only player to score three hundreds in first three Tests

While Mohammad Azharuddin’s off the field repertoire hasn’t been particularly great, the fact remains that the former Indian cricket team captain was a sheer delight to watch. Making his international debut in December 1984, Azharuddin announced his arrival by scoring three centuries and one half-century in his debut series against England. Between 1984 to 1986, Azharudding played 16 Tests and 41 ODIs, registering a total of four centuries and eight fifties across formats. His feat of scoring three centuries in his first three Tests is yet to be matched.

Mithali Raj: A revelation at 16

The captain of India’s ODI women’s team, Mithali Raj epitomises everything that the sport stands for in the country. Leading by example, Mithali Raj was honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2003, just five years after making her international debut. Like Azharuddin, a 16-year-old Raj kicked off her career with a blistering unbeaten ton against Ireland women and went on to score two half-centuries in her next four games. As far as her Test exploits are concerned, she slammed a fantastic 214 against England women in 2002.

Arjuna Award for cricket 2021: Shikhar Dhawan

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan was conferred with the Arjuna Award for cricket given his stand-out contributions to the Indian cricket team, especially in the white-ball format over the last few years.

In 2019, the Delhi-born cricketer became the second-fastest Indian to cross 5000 ODI runs (118 innings) after Virat Kohli (114 innings). Earlier this year, Shikhar Dhawan captained India for the first time in ODIs on the tour to Sri Lanka and led the Indians to a 2-1 series win.

Additionally, the southpaw has been a consistent performer in franchise cricket, having aggregated 500-plus runs in each of the last three Indian T20 League campaigns.

Arjuna Award for cricket 2023: Mohammed Shami

India's star pacer Mohammed Shami won the Arjuna Award 2023 after his impressive performances in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 held in India. The right-arm fast bowler finished as the leading wicket-taker in the marquee ICC tournament with 24 wickets in just seven matches at an average of 10.70 and a strike rate of 12.20. Shami was the wrecker-in-chief for India as the hosts finished runners-up in the 50-over World Cup.

Arjuna Award for cricket: list of winners

Women have been marked in bold

1961 - Salim Durani

1964 - Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi

1965 - Vijay Manjrekar

1966 - Chandu Borde

1967 - Ajit Wadekar

1968 - Erapalli Anantharao Srinivas

1969 - Bishan Singh Bedi

1970 - Dilip Sardesai

1971 - Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan

1972 - Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar and Eknath Solkar

1975 - Sunil Gavaskar

1976 - Shantha Rangaswamy

1977-78 - Gundappa Viswanath

1979-80 - Kapil Dev

1980-81 - Chetan Chauhan and Syed Kirmani

1981 - Dilip Vengsarkar

1982 - Mohinder Amarnath

1983 - Diana Edulji

1984 - Ravi Shastri

1985 - Shubhangi Kulkarni

1986 - Sandhya Agarwal and Mohammad Azharuddin

1989 - Madan Lal

1993 - Manoj Prabhakar and Kiran More

1994 - Sachin Tendulkar

1995 - Anil Kumble

1996 - Javagal Srinath

1997 - Sourav Ganguly and Ajay Jadeja

1998 - Rahul Dravid and Nayan Mongia

2000 - Venkatesh Prasad

2001 - VVS Laxman

2002 - Virender Sehwag

2003 - Mithali Raj and Harbhajan Singh

2005 - Anju Jain

2006 - Anjum Chopra

2009 - Gautam Gambhir

2010 - Jhulan Goswami

2011 - Zaheer Khan

2012 - Yuvraj Singh

2013 - Virat Kohli

2014 - Ravichandran Ashwin

2015 - Rohit Sharma

2016 - Ajinkya Rahane

2017 - Harmanpreet Kaur and Cheteshwar Pujara

2018 - Smriti Mandhana

2019 - Ravindra Jadeja and Poonam Yadav

2020 - Deepti Sharma and Ishant Sharma

2021 - Shikhar Dhawan

2023 - Mohammed Shami

Photo Credit: Alamy

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