Major Dhyan Chand, the most talented hockey player ever to play the game, won three Olympic Gold medals for India - 28, 32 and 36. He died in 1979.

There have been demands for decades to award him posthumously Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour of the country, but first rules didn't allow it and when rules were amended to make sportspersons get it , to honour Sachin Tendulkar, Major Dhyan Chand was still left out.

But to me "Dadda" as he is widely known is already Bharat Ratna. Even government decides to award him the highest civilian honour of the country, it will be just a formality as Dadda enjoys the status of a Bharat Ratna already in the hearts of millions of hockey lovers of the country.

It's just an anomaly that the government needs to rectify. And with Indian hockey team wining Bronze medal in Tokyo, there is a renewed push for making a de facto status of Dadda to a de jure one.