25% of Padma awardees in sports have been cricketers
A total of 218 civilian awards (Padma Awards and Bharat Ratna) have been given to individuals who excelled in the field of sports from 1954 to 2017. Cricketers won 54, which is nearly 25%, of these awards while 34 awards went to mountaineers. The only Bharat Ratna to a sportsperson was conferred on batsman Sachin Tendulkar.