Five years after being suggested for the honour, India’s Cheteshwar Pujara received the prestigious Arjuna award. Pujara’s commitments to his cricket career prevented him from attending the awards ceremony in 2017. At a ceremony here on Saturday to hand over the trophy, he finally received it.
“Thankful to @IndiaSports @BCCI and @ianuragthakur to organise and handover the Arjuna Award belatedly, which I could not collect the year it was awarded to me due to my cricket commitments. Honoured and grateful,” he tweeted after getting the award from Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
Pujara, who represents Saurashtra in domestic cricket, is in the capital for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He will be an Indian. before the two-Test series in the neighbouring country next month, a team that will tour Bangladesh. Pujara, a 96-test veteran, was re-inducted into the Indian team after excelling in county cricket.