No Cricketers, But Plenty of Champions: Who’s on India’s National Sports Awards 2025 List?

There is no cricketer on the list. But there is a chess prodigy who made history this year. A decathlete who has already broken new ground for India. A women's doubles badminton pair that has steadily climbed the international rankings. And, for the first time, a yogasana athlete has made the Arjuna recommendations.

The National Sports Awards 2025 have thrown up a distinctly diverse list of names — with 24 sportspersons recommended for the Arjuna Award and Indian men's hockey vice-captain Hardik Singh named as the sole recommendation for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour.

The recommendations were finalised by the National Sports Awards selection committee in December 2025. The final honours are presented by the President of India, with the awards traditionally conferred around National Sports Day.

So, who are the names making the biggest headlines?

Tejaswin, Divya and a badminton pair to watch

Start with Tejaswin Shankar. The athletics star is among the Arjuna recommendations after a period that has further established him as one of India's most versatile track-and-field athletes. Shankar won silver in the decathlon at the 2023 Asian Games and followed that with another silver at the 2025 Asian Championships, according to reporting on the recommendations.

Then there is Divya Deshmukh. At just 20, the chess Grandmaster has already produced a landmark achievement: she became the first Indian to win the FIDE Women's World Cup in 2025. Her inclusion makes the Arjuna list particularly notable for a sport that has rapidly expanded India's presence on the global chess stage.

And then comes the badminton partnership of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. The duo has emerged as India's leading women's doubles pair and is among the 24 names recommended for the Arjuna Award. Gayatri is also the daughter of former All England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand — but this recommendation is for her achievements as an athlete in her own right.

One nomination is making history

There is another name on the list that deserves attention. Aarti Pal, a yogasana athlete, is the first sportsperson from the discipline to be recommended for an Arjuna Award. She is a reigning national and Asian champion in yogasana. The discipline was formally recognised by the Sports Ministry in 2020 and is set to feature as a demonstration sport at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan.

It is a small line in a long list. But it marks a significant moment for a sport that is still finding its place within India's competitive sporting ecosystem.

And where is the cricket?

Nowhere. No cricketer has been recommended for an Arjuna Award this year. That makes it the second consecutive year in which no cricketer has made the shortlist. Mohammed Shami, who received the Arjuna Award in 2023, remains the most recent cricketer to receive the honour.

For a country where cricket often dominates the sporting conversation, the absence is hard to miss. But look at the rest of the list and the picture becomes much broader.

Athletics. Boxing. Chess. Deaf shooting. Gymnastics. Hockey. Kabaddi. Kho-kho. Para-sport. Polo. Rowing. Shooting. Table tennis. Wrestling. Yogasana. Badminton.

The 24 recommendations span 17 sporting disciplines.

Hardik Singh gets the biggest nod

At the top of the honours hierarchy is Hardik Singh. The Indian men's hockey vice-captain is the sole recommendation for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Hardik has been a key part of India's midfield and was a member of the teams that won Olympic bronze at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. In 2025, he was also part of India's gold-medal-winning Asia Cup campaign.

There is another interesting detail here. Hardik has already won the Arjuna Award, in 2021.

The Khel Ratna recommendation is a separate and higher honour, recognising a sportsperson's exceptional performance over the preceding four years. The award carries a cash prize of ₹25 lakh, while the Arjuna Award carries ₹15 lakh.

A list that looks beyond the usual names

The remaining Arjuna recommendations include athletes such as Priyanka, Narender, Dhanush Srikanth, Pranati Nayak, Rajkumar Pal, Lalremsiami, Surjeet, Nirmala Bhati, Rudransh Khandelwal, Ekta Bhyan, Padmanabh Singh, Arvind Singh, Akhil Sheoran, Mehuli Ghosh, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Sonam Malik, Mohammed Afsal and Pooja, alongside Shankar, Gujrathi, Deshmukh, Aarti Pal, Treesa and Gayatri.

The selection process involved applications through an online portal, with sportspersons, coaches and entities allowed to apply themselves. The committee included former and current figures from sport administration and the sporting world. And perhaps that is the most interesting thing about this year's list.

Look past the familiar names and there is a changing picture of Indian sport: more disciplines, more women, more para-athletes and athletes from emerging sporting categories finding their way into the country's top honours.

The awards are meant to recognise what has already been achieved. But a list like this also hints at where Indian sport is heading next.

The big names are still there. The sporting map around them is getting bigger.

(With inputs from ANI)