I could not agree with you more. For his stellar service, the treatment accorded to Dravid has been deplorable. Dhoni is a good cricketer no doubt, but putting him ahead of Dravid and on par with Tendulkar is taking it a bit too far. It also hasnt helped Dravid's cause that while India has been gripped by the Dhoni phenomenon, he is enduring the worst form of his test career.

If you had done little more research about the award then you might not have done the post.
The award is for best Indian sportsperson for the year of 2007. It is not some lifetime acheivement award, it is strictly based on the performance during the last one year.
He has led the team to victory in the T20 World Cup. He also averaged 52 and 44 in ODIs and Tests respectively in 2007. This does makes him a leading candidate for the award.
Also, he getting the award does not make him one of the two best cricketers produced by India. Kapil, Gavaskar, Dravid, Ganguly ..(long list) have all acheived more than him.
If the post was about Koneru Humpy not getting the award then I would have understood. But I still have no clue how can you compare Dravid not getting the award few years back with Dhoni getting the award this year.
Unless, you can provide the statistics of some other sportsperson whom you think was better than Dhoni please refrain from saying that he didn't deserve this award.

what an article, i've always been a massive fan of dravid but i think dhoni is no where near, sure hes scoring runs now, but watch in a few years they'll dry up and indias golden boy will be dropped faster than a falling stone.

@Amardeep
Dhoni is a good leader of men, he is a fine captain. But as a player, he is nowhere close to what Dravid managed as both captain and player in the two years that he was nominated.

I specifically did not want to make it a statistical comparison because I think Dravid's contribution as a player is more than just the runs that he scores or the catches he takes.
I think his commitment to the country's cause has gone unrewarded, and Dhoni will definitely merit the award when he can at least show Dravid's levels of commitment and determination for India.

Dhoni does not deserve an award of that stature at this moment. This will only lower the stature of the award. Sachin has got it after tremendous contribution to Indian cricket and had brought Indian cricket from ground to the sky level. They should have tested Dhoni at least half of Sachin.

Alok, You have hit the right note, and as an answer to amardeep, well people tend to forget that there are games were we have produced world champions like Chess and World Carrom Championshiops ( V Anandh & Saravanan)..Guys if at all we talk about Vishy Anandh, who claimed the World 1 ranking in 2007 and won all the majors except, and adding feather to the cap regained the world no 1spot with winning the world chess championships is a credit to him, how indians know that we are the world champions in Carrom in both Men and Women Singles category and our nearest rivalry is from malaysia...Dhoni C'mon..he is akid in the block who is running in this one tournament hype which we always do to our players..and giving him this award is itself an act which can only happen in our country moulded with politics in sports.As a common citizen of india, lets pay our respect and tribute to those who have really given their sweat out and brought great pride to our country ...Kuddos "Dravid" "Anandh"

Those of us that know our cricket would never doubt Dravid's contribution to India. He has, in my opinion, been at par with Sachin as the best Indian Test-batsman of this generation. He has played more match-winning hands and certainly been more consistent abroad than Sachin.

However, you cannot rest on past laurels. He has been a shadow of himself the last 2 years - he deserved to be axed from the ODI side because India needs to blood youngsters (Sachin and Ganguly are definitely better ODI options than Dravid). In all likelihood, he will be the first of the big four to get the axe from the Test team itself. If that happens, it will be justified based on form, nothing else... and the selectors don't owe him a spot in the team.

As far as Dhoni goes, his bubble will ultimately burst. He has surpassed expectations with some excellent captaincy, but he is just an average Test batsman. However, we've seen what his backup is (in)capable of in the SL series. So, he might be around a while

@amardeep:
the award may be given for performance in a calendar year, but it can be won only once in one's lifetime. that is why it has the trappings of a 'lifetime achievement award'. has dhoni achieved anything which would merit a 'lifetime achievment' award?
he had a good year in 2007, not a great one. and it is futile to point at his test average in 2007, because
a) he played just 13 innings - too few by far to make any meaningful analysis
b) there's not a single test innings of note, either match winning or match saving.

finally, it is not mandatory that the award be given out every year - therefore, if nobody else in any sport achieved any outstanding result, it is more acceptable to not have an award than give it to someone who still has a long way to go before deserving it.

As much as i love and respect and admire dhoni for his excellent leadership skills (e.g. the way he keeps his cool no matter what the situation is, the way he inspires confidence into his teammates, etc.), i do not think he deserves the khel ratna - not just yet, at least. In awarding him the khel ratna, the jury is putting him at par with the God of not only cricket, but of world sport. Sachin has not only changed the face of indian sport, but that of world cricket as well. No other indian (except for maybe Kapil Dev) has done to cricket what Sachin has offered. I love dhoni, but don't think he deserves this award... just yet.

Amardeep has a point. The award is given for "outstanding sporting performance over ALL disciplines" for a given year. The fact that we have given it to Dhoni for the year 2007 does not mean we think of him as being greater than Dravid as a cricketer - we just mean he was the country's best sportsperson for the year, period. Nothing more, nothing less.

The fact that Dravid didn't ever get it just means that during the year when he was nominated, there was some OTHER sportsperson whose achievement was bigger than Dravid's.

It's a bit like the Allan Border medal that Shane Warne never got. That doesn't make Warne a lesser cricketer; just that according to the criteria set out by the 'awarders', there were always better players than Warne FOR EACH YEAR, though Warne was undoubtedly better than them all OVER A PERIOD OF TIME.

Same with Dravid :-)