For the first time in 22 years, and in an effort to boost the Indian indigenous games, former Indian women’s kho-kho captain Sarika Kale will be conferred with the Arjuna Award during a virtual ceremony on National Sports Day on August 29. She is now retired and is employed as a sports officer with the Maharashtra Government. She had led the Indian team to a gold medal at the 12th South Asian Games in 2016. She has also won multiple medals in the Senior National Championships in the last decade.

Meanwhile, Kale, in an interview to the Indian newspaper The Hindu noted her struggling days after the announcement was made this week. “Though I have been named for the Arjuna Award this year, I still remember the days of playing Kho Kho. I had one-time food for almost a decade.”

-TIN Bureau