IPL 2022: BCCI felicitates Neeraj Chopra and other Olympians during season opener

The IPL 2022 season got underway on Saturday. Ahead of the same, the BCCI felicitated the Indian Olympians from Tokyo Olympics, including Neeraj Chopra.

The 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) is the 15th season of the worthwhile Twenty20 (T20) tournament. The matches are being played in Mumbai and Pune. In contrast, the season opener was played on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium between four-time defending champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Ahead of the same, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to felicitate the Indian Olympians from the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Before Saturday's opening game, BCCI felicitated gold-medalist Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra with a cash prize of ₹1 crore. He happens to be India's only second gold medalist at the Games, while he is the first to attain at track and field events. The men's hockey team that won the bronze medal after 40 years was also given a combined cash prize of the same amount.

Indian hockey skipper Manpreet Singh claimed the cash prize on behalf of his team from BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and BCCI Secretary Jay Shah. Besides, bronze-medalist Lovlina Borgohain was handed a cash prize of ₹25 lakh. The cash awards were already announced last year by the BCCI.