R Ashwin presented with the Arjuna Award

R Ashwin presented with the Arjuna Award: India off-spinner R Ashwin was on Friday presented the Arjuna Award, in New Delhi. The honour was conferred on him last year, by the Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. R Ashwin was not present during the Award Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29, 2014 as he was a part of the India ODI team, which was touring England at that time.

The Arjuna Award is presented by the Indian Government for outstanding achievement in sports. The award comprises a statuette, a certificate, a ceremonial dress and a cash award of Rs. 5 lakhs. Since its establishment in 1961, 47 Indian cricketers have received the Arjuna Award. For R Ashwin, to join the elite list is an honour he never dreamt of. He has led India’s spin bowling department from the front in the limited overs cricket and also became the fastest bowler to scalp 100 Test wickets since 1931.

R Ashwin expressed his delight after receiving the prestigious award. “The journey has been pretty good so far. I have been very lucky, in a lot of aspects I thank God for that. To a greater degree I just played for the country and felt that I was very lucky and then to be conferred the Arjuna award today from the Sports Minister is a big honour. I hope I serve the country in a better fashion and get more awards,” he told reporters.

With Sri Lanka tour round the corner, the off-spinner is not under any sort of pressure and is busy enjoying his game. “Honestly, pressure is something that we are used to all the time. So pressure is not something that is a factor. I want to go there and get used to the conditions. I just want to enjoy my game. I am doing really well, the ball is coming out well so I just want to enjoy myself,” he said.

Here are the tweets from R Ashwin:

Received the award from the honourable minister of state(independent charge) Shri Sarbananda Sonowal. pic.twitter.com/kfZp8dPBzH

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) July 31, 2015

A proud moment in life. pic.twitter.com/53RuBPmEu4

— Ashwin Ravichandran (@ashwinravi99) July 31, 2015

Here is the list of 47 Indian cricketers who have been awarded the Arjuna Award:

1. Saleem Durani  1961

2. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi 1964

3. Vijay Manjrekar 1965

4. Chandu Borde  1966

5. Ajit Wadekar 1967

6. E.A.S. Prasanna 1968

7. Bishan Singh Bedi 1969

8. Dilip Sardesai 1970

9. Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan 1971

10. Eknath Solkar 1972

11. B.S. Chandrashekhar 1972

12. Sunil Gavaskar 1975

13. Shanta Rangaswamy 1976

14. Gundappa Vishwanath 1977-78

15. Kapil Dev Nikhanj 1979-80

16. Chetan Chauhan 1980-81

17. Syed Kirmani 1980-81

18. Dilip Vengsarkar 1981

19. Mohinder Amarnath 1982

20. Diana Edulji 1983

21. Ravi Shastri 1984

22. Shubhangi Kulkarni 1985

23. Mohammad Azharuddin 1986

24. Sandhya Agarwal 1986

25. Madan Lal 1989

26. Manoj Prabhakar 1993

27. Kiran More 1993

28. Sachin Tendulkar 1994

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29. Anil Kumble 1995

30. Javagal Srinath 1996

31. Ajay Jadeja 1997

32. Sourav Ganguly 1997

33. Rahul Dravid 1998

34. Nayan Mongia 1998

35. B.K. Venkatesh Prasad  2000

36. VVS Laxman 2001

37. Virender Sehwag 2002

38. Harbhajan Singh 2003

39. Mithali Raj 2003

40. Anju Jain  2005

41. Anjum Chopra 2006

42. Gautam Gambhir  2009

43.  Jhulan Goswami 2010

44. Zaheer Khan 2011

45. Yuvraj Singh  2012

46. Virat Kohli  2013

47. R Ashwin  2014