NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is most likely to suggest names of Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma for this year’s Arjuna Awards.
Shikha and Deepti’s performance in the World T20 and in the last year saw their names being forwarded to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for the prestigious awards.
“Yes, the office-bearers were given the names of Shikha and Deepti by the cricket operations team for not just their brilliant show in the World T20 in Australia where we finished as runners-up, but also for their consistent showing in the last season,” IANS quoted one BCCI official on Tuesday.
“These two names have been forwarded to the office-bearers and are likely to be forwarded to the ministry for the Arjuna Awards once they approve.”
Shafali was in tremendous form scoring 163 runs in 5 games at a strike-rate of 158.25 while Shikha picked up seven wickets from five games with best figures of 3/14.
Deepti played an all-round role in the tournament and was instrumental in India beating ultimate champions Australia in the opening game of the competition with her knock of unbeaten 49 in the lower half of the innings. She finished with 116 runs in the tournament.
However, India failed in the final as a record-breaking attendance for a women’s cricket match of 86,174 watched Australia beat them by 85 runs in the T20 Women’s World Cup at the MCG on March 8.
