JU proposes World Cup winning captain Harmanpreet for honorary DLitt

If all goes according to plan, then Harmanpreet Kaur — captain of India’s first-ever Women’s World Cup triumph last Sunday — could be the first-ever sportsperson to be honoured with a DLitt (honoris causa) by Kolkata's prestigious Jadavpur University at its annual convocation on 24 December. A meeting of deans on Thursday proposed Harmanpreet’s name and it will now be forwarded to governor C.V. Ananda Bose, ex officio chancellor of state-aided universities, for approval.

Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, the new vice-chancellor, and the acting registrar also attended the meeting where the name came up. ‘’It’s very much in the proposal stage and the head of the Physical Education faculty, who is currently the Dean of Arts, was the mover. While JU is yet to honour any notable sportsperson in its history, it could be a first and an endorsement of women’s empowerment,’’ informed sources in the university said.

The university rules say that should the chancellor give the green signal, the name will be placed before the university’s executive council for formal approval. There is also a possibility that should be the proposal to confer the honorary DLitt be turned down, the Indian skipper could be felicitated during the convocation.

The meeting also proposed the names of Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, DRDO chairman Samir V. Kamat and the CEO of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) Shivkumar Kalyanaraman as chief guests for the convocation.

Interestingly, JU had once mulled the name of Sourav Ganguly, former India captain, for the honours in 2014 but it fell through. A number of other distinguished sports personalities like P.T. Usha, Mary Kom, Rahul Dravid, Pulella Gopichand and Ganguly himself, meanwhile, have been bestowed with the honour from other universities.

Speaking of which, the felicitation spree of the women’s world champions continued throughout the country on Friday. As each of them heads back to their hometowns, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis honoured Mumbai residents Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Radha Yadav with cash awards of Rs 2.5 crore each at his residence.

Head coach Amol Muzumdar was presented with a cheque of Rs 22.5 lakh while bowling coach Avishkar Salvi, Padma Shri Diana Edulji, analyst Aniruddha Deshpande and members of the support staff — Apama Gambhirrao, Mihir Upadhyay, Purva Kate and Mamta Shirrulla — were also felicitated for their contributions to the team’s success. Fadnavis further announced a cash award of Rs 11 lakh for all members of the support staff, acknowledging their vital role in India’s World Cup victory.

Earlier, pace bowlers Renuka Singh Thakur and Kranti Gaud were each awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 crore by their state governments, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Cricket Association of Bengal has planned a celebration for Richa Ghosh, the young wicketkeeper-batter, at the Eden Gardens on Saturday. Richa, the only player from Bengal in the winning squad who was a member of the Under-19 World Cup winning women’s team with Shafali Verma a few years back, returned to her hometown Siliguri in north Bengal amid tumultuous celebrations this afternoon.