Who is a Khel Ratna?

I congratulate Dhoni on receiving the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award which is the highest sporting award given in the country. The only other reciepient of the award for the sport of Cricket is the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar. Though Dhoni deserves recognition I feel his selection for this award was a little premature as he is in the international cricketing world only during the recent past. The Khel Ratna Award is given to those who have displayed their sporting talent on an international platform consistently over a long period of time or have reached the acme of thier field. It is true that Dhoni has resurrected the sagging image of Indian Cricket by winning the 20-20 world cup last year in South Africa after a dismal performance in the One day international world cup the same year. Being the captain of the one day team he is also credited to the winning of the elusive Australian one day championship. However I feel some of the contemporary Indian cricketers with illustrious careers over a longer span have been ignored. For instance take Rahul Dravid. He has been around since 1996 in the Indian Dressing Room. He has over 10000 runs under his belt in two of three versions of today’s cricket, test cricket and one day international cricket. He was instrumental in many famous successful Indian exploits around the world. Though he is currently out of form, he is still highly regarded as a great batsman with an impressive average of about 54 from 124 test matches. He continues to maintain a competitive average of 40 in over 300 one day international matches. Probably his recent slump in form started towards the fag end of his forgettable tenure as a captain. His notable achievements as a captain were the overseas series wins against West Indies and England. But his past performances with the bat cannot be undermined as several of his knocks are still imprinted in the hearts of Indians. He donned the role of a rescuer on many occasions when most of the Indian batting collapsed in both test and one day cricket. No wonder he is hailed as the WALL. Didn’t he exhibit a consistent display of his batting prowess over a long period of time in the fiercely competitive world of international cricket. He definitely deserves recognition akin to the Khel Ratna Award.
Dhoni represents the new,youthful,aggressive face of the Indian Cricket which has risen up like a phoenix. He represents the youth of the nation and is a stark example of the rise of an underdog from the bylanes of the semi urban India. But that doesn’t qualify him immediately for such an exemplary award. The primary criterion for the award should have been a consistent performance over a period of time under various conditions. One gets to doubt the basis on which a sportsman is evaluated for the award. Is the award committee trying to conform to the popular demand? It sends out a wrong message that a true performer is not given his due respect in the country.