The controversy regarding the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is almost a yearly phenomenon, and this time, it is the turn of wrestler Bajrang Punia to raise fingers at the way sports awards are handed out in India.

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Miffed at being denied the country's highest sporting honour at the expense of cricket captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, Punia has cited his maximum score in the points system introduced by the Sports ministry a few years ago.

Punia's grouse is an age-old issue that has been challenging the flawed points system adopted by successive governments.

In this case, the 24-year-old wrestler who won gold at Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year, is comparing his highest score of 80 points under the criteria to that of the zero points of Kohli, by far the most famous Indian sportsperson at the moment, and Mirabai's 44 points.

However, what Punia has ignored is that cricketers — or, for that matter, athletes of many other sports like kabaddi, kho kho and the like — do not participate in competitions like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, and thus can't be judged on the points system.

To put it simply, cricketers will always have zero points against their names because there is no system in place where performances in the cricket World Cup can be compared with that of the Olympics, or Asia Cup with that of Asian Games and so on.

The fact remains that Kohli is the No. 1 ranked batsman in the world in two out of three formats at the moment, and Mirabai is the only Indian who is currently a world champion in an Olympic sport.

The focal point, thus, is that controversies erupt regarding the Khel Ratna award due to its inefficient methodology.

Unless cricket becomes part of the Olympics along with other non-Olympic sports, there cannot possibly be a standard points system in place. Making cricketers and other non-Olympic athletes ineligible for these awards would also be unfair. If that was the case, legends like Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid or MS Dhoni would not have got coveted government awards.

Despite bringing in changes in the format, eligibility rules and basic structure of these awards, the Khel Ratna award, which was instituted in 1991-92, has always been a topic of debate.

In 2001, when legendary runner Milkha Singh created an uproar after being chosen for the Arjuna Award years after his retirement along with lesser achievers compared to what he did in his time, the Sports ministry decided to change the composition of the awards panel by bringing more sportspersons into it. But there are still loopholes.

Performances over four years are taken into consideration for picking a Khel Ratna and yet, popular choices in an Olympic, Commonwealth or Asian Games year often get the nod at the expense of consistent performers over the four years.

For example, how could one justify PV Sindhu's bronze medal at the 2013 World Badminton Championships, an annual event, being worth only five points while a bronze-medallist at the Asian Games, which comes only once in four years, being handed out 20 points?

Thus, the only solution to end these controversies year after year can be by completely overhauling the points system, and getting a more logical mechanism in place.