Khel Ratna, a 3-horse race

Advani, Bhupathi in the fray along with Dravid.

NEW DELHI: Rahul Dravid takes on world billiards champion Pankaj Advani and mutiple Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi for the 2005-06 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in what promises to be one of the closest contests in recent years.

In a meeting of government of India sports observers in Delhi on Friday, these three main contenders for the nation’s highest sporting award were discussed. An observer pointed out that while Dravid may be the public favourite on account of the tremendous passion that cricket arouses, the other two names are backed by solid performances.

In fact, the least well known of the three — Pankaj Advani — may well be the hottest contender as he became the only Indian to win two world billiards titles (in point and time formats) as well as the Asian billiards title in 2005. Then, Mahesh Bhupathi notched up his Grand Slam haul to 10 titles by claiming two mixed doubles crowns in 2005.

The Khel Ratna which was instituted in 1991 has only gone to one cricketer till date. Sachin Tendulkar earned the honour for 1997-98. Geet Sethi was the last billiards player to be given the award (92-93) while Leander Paes in the only tennis player to have got the honour (96-97).

The final selection will be made by the second week of August and the President is to confer the award on August 29 along with a cash prize of five lakh.