S S Das to get Biju Patnaik award

Jatindra Dash

India's 23-year-old opening batsman Shiv Sundar Das will be conferred the first 'Biju Patnaik Sportsperson of the Year award' by the Orissa government.

A seven-member selection committee, under the chairmanship of the state's principal secretary, sports, picked Das for the award, Orissa sports director Kulamani Deo said.

Das's good performance against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Australia got him the award, which carries Rs 50,000 with it.

Orissa has earmarked Rs. 1 million to honour its outstanding sportspersons.

"We are going to honour 75 other sportspersons in 11 disciplines, with the prize-amount varying from Rs.40,000 to Rs.5,000," the official said.

The cash awards were launched in 1994. They were discontinued in 1997 but revived in 1998. They were again discontinued in 2000 because of wide criticism over selection procedures.

"We have revived the scheme making the selection procedure transparent," Deo said.

Indo-Asian News Service