Sreesanth, Nehwal strike it rich at BPCL sports awards

Mumbai, Oct 29 (UNI) BPCL has distributed Rs 63,95,750 as prize money to its sportpersons, including India cricketer S Sreesanth, at its 'Sports Awards 2007' night here yesterday.

Sreesanth, got Rs 4,75,000 for being a member of the Twenty20 India team which won the World Cup, said on the occasion yesterday that he would continue to be his aggressive self in the upcoming series also.

The Kerala fast bowler further said his passion for cricket remains the same, though he now knows his limits.

''I would not change anything about myself and try and concentrate on taking wickets for my country,'' he added.

On the upcoming Pakistan tour of India, when asked whether he would target any Pakistani batsman like Mohammad Yusuf or Younis Khan, he said ''For me, all the wickets are important. We need to get the Pakistani batsmen out and for that taking all the wickets is important.'' The other award winners included badminton star Saina Nehwal, hockey players Tushar Khander and William Xalco, cue sports specialists Manan Chandra, Anuja Thakur-Chandra, Devendra Joshi, table tennis player Poulami Ghatak, chess players Anupama Gokhale, Abhijit Gupta and M Kidambi among a host of others.

The full list of award winners with award money: Manan Chandra (Snooker&Pool) -- Rs 584,000, Arjuna awardee Devendra Joshi (Billiards/Snooker) -- Rs 409,000, Arjuna awardee Anuja Thakur (Billiards/Snooker) -- Rs 359,000, Poulomi Ghatak (Table Tennis) -- Rs 287,250, Neha Aggarwal (Table Tennis) -- Rs 415,500 Special awardee Tushar Khandekar (Hockey) -- Rs 305,000, Special awardee William Xalco (Hockey) -- Rs 230,000, G M Hari Prasad (Hockey) -- Rs 155,000, Saina Nehwal (Badminton) -- Rs 606,000, Jwala Gutta (Badminton) -- Rs 344,750, Shruti Kurian (Badminton) Rs 179,750, Aditi Mutatkar (Badminton) -- Rs 56,000, Anup Shridhar (Badminton) -- Rs 357,000, Arvind Bhat (Badminton) Rs 151,000, Abhijit Gupta (Chess) -- Rs 451,000, M R Venkatesh (Chess) -- Rs 101,000, S Kidambi (Chess) -- Rs 116,000, Anupama Gokhale (Chess) -- Rs 376,000, Tom Joseph (Volleyball) -- Rs 52,000, R Rajeev (Volleyball) -- Rs 52,000, S Sreesanth (Cricket) -- Rs 475,000, M M Somaya (Hockey) Rs 150,000, George Thomas (Badminton) Rs 150,000. UNI