Twitter Reacts As Khel Ratna Award Is Named After Dhyan Chand

Netizens welcomed the decision of naming India's highest sporting honour after Major Dhyan Chand

The Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour would be named after Major Dhyan Chand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Saturday. Earlier, the award was named after former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

The award was instituted in 1991-92. Rohit Sharma, Vinesh Phogat, Manika Batra, Rani Rampal, and Mariyappan Thangavelu received the honour in 2020.

Netizens welcomed the decision to name the award after one of India's best sportspersons of all time. Here is a glance through some of the best reactions to the decisions.

Breaking: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is renamed after Major Dhyan Chand! Not a moment too soon. The country’s top sports award should be appropriately named after the country’s first Olympian hero. Well done @narendramodi ! Hope Cong too embraces this! 👍

— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) August 6, 2021

I'm completely and absolutely in favour of renaming the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award after Major Dhyan Chand. I also hope that they now rename every single cricket stadium in the country after cricketers.

— Shiamak Baria-Unwalla (@Crikipedia) August 6, 2021

Sir, how about re-naming the World's largest Cricket Stadium, the #NarendraModiCricketStadium at #Motera, #Ahmedabad, #Gujarat after a cricketing legend of #India? https://t.co/y8QNPwSQAH

— Deepal.‏‎‎Trivedi #VoI. (@DeepalTrevedie) August 6, 2021

I would want to see a Bharat Ratna, no less, for Dhyan Chand.

He put India on the global map before most of the Bharat Ratnas.

Merely an award named after him is not remotely enough (better than Rajiv Gandhi, of course).

— Abhishek Mukherjee (@SachinAzharCT) (@ovshake42) August 6, 2021

India's highest sporting award has been renamed. It is now the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Hopefully the Bharat Ratna follows.

— Digvijay Singh Deo (@DiggySinghDeo) August 6, 2021

Thank you Modiji for naming Khel Ratna award after an athlete, Dhyan Chand. Hopefully you can also change the names of Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad & Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi to the names of athletes also

— Sankul Sonawane (@Sankul333) August 6, 2021

Very good decision. Don’t understand why Sports award & Sports stadium are named after Politicians. PM Modi should lead by changing name of Narendra Modi Stadium to Sir Ravi Jadeja Stadium. 👍 https://t.co/MT3J3TL8sI

— Mumbai Rains (@IndiaWeatherMan) August 6, 2021

Hopefully in the future sports stadium names will be after sportsmen too.

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) August 6, 2021