Abhinav Bindra, MS Dhoni to get honorary army rank

 India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra will be bestowed with the honorary army rank of Lieutenant Colonel today.

Addressing a function on Monday, Bindra said it was a great honour for him to get the rank and felt humbled by it. Recently Harper Collins had published his biography, authored by sportswriter Rohit Brijnath.

“Of course it is a huge honour and I am very humbled to have received such an honour, it is extremely humbling,” said Bindra.

Bindra will join Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar who were conferred with honorary ranks in the armed forces.

Kapil Dev is an honorary Lt Col in the Territorial Army, while Tendulkar is an honorary Group Captain in the Indian Air Force.

Abhinav Bindra had won gold in the 10-metre air rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His feat made him India’s first ever individual gold medallist, and brought to the country its first Olympic gold after the hockey medal in the 1980 Moscow games.

Along with Bindra, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and combat specialist Deepak Annaji Rao will don the army’s olive green uniform in the rank of honorary Lt. Colonel.

While Dhoni is being conferred the honorary rank for his contribution to cricket, Rao is being honoured for imparting special commando training to the armed forces during the last 17 years.

Rao is alo credited with giving close quarter battle techniques and commando combat training to chief of Army Staff General VK Singh early in his career.