The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata of ancient India. He was master of advanced military warfare and was appointed as the royal preceptor to the Kaurava and the Pandava princes for their training in military arts and astras (Divine weapons). It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Recipients are selected by a committee constituted by the Ministry and are honoured to have done "outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and enabled sportspersons to excel in international events" over a period of four years. Two awards are designated for the lifetime contribution in coaching where the achievements in producing "outstanding sportspersons" over a period of 20 years or more are considered. , the award comprises a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a certificate, ceremonial dress, and a cash prize of .
Instituted in 1985, the award is given only to the disciplines included in the events like Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championship and World Cup along with Cricket, Indigenous Games, and Parasports. The nominations for a given year are accepted till 30 April or last working day of April. A ten-member committee evaluates the nominations and later submits their recommendations to the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports for further approval.
The first recipients of the award were Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat (Wrestling), Om Prakash Bhardwaj (Boxing), and O. M. Nambiar (Athletics), who were honoured in 1985. Usually conferred upon not more than five coaches in a year, a few exceptions have been made (2012 and 2016–2020) when more recipients were awarded in a year.
Nominations
The nominations for the award are received from all government recognised National Sports Federations, the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India, the Sports Promotion and Control Boards, and the state and the union territory governments with not more than two eligible coaches nominated for each sports discipline. In case of cricket, the nominations are received from the Board of Control for Cricket in India as there is no National Sports Federation recognised by the Government. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is authorised to submit the nominations on behalf of all the de-recognised or under suspension National Sports Federations. The previous award recipients of Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Dronacharya Award, and Dhyan Chand Award can also nominate one coach for the discipline for which they themselves were awarded. The Government can nominate up to two coaches in deserving cases where no such nominations have been received from the nominating authorities. The nominations for a given year are accepted till 30 April or last working day of April.
Selection process
All the received nominations are sent to SAI and concerned National Sports Federations for verification against the claimed achievements. The National Anti-Doping Agency is responsible for providing the doping clearance. Any coach associated with a sportsperson who is either penalised or being investigated for use of drugs or substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency is not eligible for the award along with the previous award recipients of Dhyan Chand Award. A committee consisting of the Joint Secretary and the Director/Deputy Secretary of Department of Sports, the Secretary and the Executive Director/Director (TEAMS) of SAI verify and validate the nominations.
The valid nominations are considered by a selection committee constituted by the Government. This eleven members committee consists of a Chairperson nominated by the Ministry, two members who are either Olympians or previous recipients of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna or the Arjuna Award, three previous recipients of the Dronacharya Award of different sports disciplines, two sports journalists/experts/commentators, one sports administrator, the Director General of SAI, and the Joint Secretary of Department of Sports, with not more than one sportsperson from any particular discipline being included in the committee. The medals won in various International championships and events in disciplines included in Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympics Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games are given 80% weightage. The remaining 20% weightage is given to the profile and standard of the events where their trainees have won the medals. For any other games not included in Olympic, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games like cricket and indigenous games, individual performances are taken into consideration. Coach with maximum points is given 80 marks, while the remaining coaches are given marks in proportion to the maximum points. For team events, marks are given per the strength of the team. Following are the points defined for medals at the given events:
+Points given to coach for winning medals by their trainee during the last four years Olympic Games/Paralympic Games 80 70 55 World Championship/World Cup 40 30 20 Asian Games 30 25 20 Commonwealth Games 25 20 15
For a given discipline, not more than two coaches, one male and one female, are given highest marks. The committee may not recommend the award to the coach with the highest marks across disciplines but can only recommend the recipient of the highest aggregate marks in a particular sports discipline. The recommendations of the selection committee are submitted to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for further approval.
Recipients
+ Key
+List of award recipients, showing the year and discipline(s) Year Recipient(s) Discipline(s) 1985 Wrestling 1985 Boxing 1985 Athletics 1986 Cricket 1986 Chess 1987 Wrestling 1987 Cricket 1988 No award 1989 No award 1990 Cricket 1990 Football 1990 Volleyball 1991 No award 1992 No award 1993 No award 1994 Athletics 1995 Volleyball 1995 Athletics 1996 Billiards & Snooker 1996 Weightlifting 1997 Athletics 1998 Boxing 1998 Athletics 1998 1999 1999 Boxing 1999 Weightlifting 2000 Badminton 2000 Hockey 2000 Powerlifting 2000 Kho kho 2000 Weightlifting 2001 Billiards & Snooker 2001 Shooting 2002 Hockey 2002 Athletics 2002 Yachting 2002 Kabaddi 2002 Athletics 2003 Wrestling 2003 Robert Bobby George Athletics 2003 Boxing 2003 Hockey 2004 Squash 2004 Billiards & Snooker 2004 Cricket 2005 Rowing 2005 Wrestling 2005 Kabaddi 2005 Boxing 2006 Chess 2006 Boxing 2006 Athletics 2007 Boxing 2007 Wrestling 2007 Archery 2007 Volleyball 2008 No award 2009 Boxing 2009 Badminton 2009 Hockey 2009 Wrestling 2010 Billiards & Snooker 2010 Hockey 2010 Wrestling 2010 Athletics 2010 Boxing 2011 Gymnastics 2011 Wrestling 2011 Boxing 2012 Kabaddi 2012 Boxing 2012 Athletics 2012 Athletics 2012 Hockey 2012 Wrestling 2013 Archery 2013 Hockey 2013 Boxing 2014 Wrestling 2015 2015 Athletics 2016 Boxing 2016 Gymnastics 2016 Athletics 2016 Cricket 2017 Athletics 2017 Kabaddi 2018 Boxing 2018 Weightlifting 2018 Table Tennis 2018 Athletics 2019 2019 Badminton 2019 Table Tennis 2020 Hockey 2020 Mallakhamb 2020 Shooting 2020 Wushu 2020 Badminton 2021 Athletics 2021 Boxing 2021 Hockey 2021 Shooting 2021 Table Tennis 2022 Archery 2022 Boxing 2022 Shooting 2022 Wrestling 2023 2023 Chess 2023 Athetics 2023 Hockey 2023 Mallakhamb 2024 Shooting 2024 Shooting 2024 Hockey +List of lifetime award recipients, showing the year and discipline(s) Year Lifetime Recipient(s) Discipline(s) 2011 Athletics 2011 Hockey 2012 Athletics 2012 Table Tennis 2013 Wrestling 2013 Athletics 2014 Judo 2014 Rowing 2014 Athletics 2014 Boxing 2015 Swimming 2015 Athletics 2015 Boxing 2016 Swimming 2016 Wrestling 2017 Badminton 2017 Boxing 2017 Hockey 2017 Shooting 2017 Wrestling 2018 Hockey 2018 Cricket 2018 Judo 2018 Athletics 2019 Kabaddi 2019 Cricket 2019 Hockey 2020 Archery 2020 Athletics 2020 Boxing 2020 Hockey 2020 Kabaddi 2020 Powerlifting 2020 Tennis 2020 Wrestling 2021 Athletics 2021 Cricket 2021 Hockey 2021 Kabaddi 2021 Swimming 2022 Cricket 2022 Football 2022 Wrestling 2023 Golf 2023 Kabaddi 2023 Table Tennis 2024 Badminton 2024 Football
Controversies
Some of the recipients have been accused of falsely claiming the achievements of the medalist under their names. Satpal Singh (2009), Ramphal (2011), and Yashvir Singh (2012) had mentioned two times Olympic medal winning wrestler Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012) as their trainee. The award for year 2012 was bestowed upon para sports athletics coach Satyapal Singh. However, 2010 Arjuna Award winning para athlete Jagseer Singh accused Satyapal Singh for falsely mentioning him as their trainee for the award. Jagseer Singh mentioned that 2006 Dronacharya Award winner R. D. Singh was appointed as the main coach and Satyapal Singh was an assisting coach. Jagseer was informed about such claim via Right to Information Act, 2005 which had him mentioned as the primary trainee by Satyapal Singh. 2013 award winner Raj Singh also claimed Sushil Kumar and 2012 Summer Olympics medal winning wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt as their trainee. Following an announcement, in August 2015, a Public-Interest Litigation was filed in the Delhi High Court by Vinod Kumar. The petitioner, former chief wrestling coach, mentioned that he was the chief national coach of men's freestyle wrestling team from November 2010 to April 2015 and claimed that he had more points (420) than the recipient Anoop Singh Dahiya (375). The court directed the Ministry to confer the award on Kumar and provided one week to the Ministry to challenge the decision. However, the Ministry did not change their decision as the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) had sacked Kumar in May 2015.
Explanatory notes
References
External links