Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia will distribute the country's most prestigious awards to 33 sportsmen and sports personnel --18 for 2001 and 15 for 2002.

The award carries a gold medal, cash Tk 20,000 and a certificate.

The recipients of the award for the year 2001 are: Grand Master Ziaur Rahman (chess), Kabir Ahmed, Mohammad Kaikobad and Zahirul Haq (football), Begum Rawshan Ara Chhabi, Altaf Hossain and Shah Alam (athletics), Pratap Shankar Hazra and Hossain Imam Chowdhury Shanta (hockey), Abdul Jalil (kabadi), Kismat-Ul-Hakim and Manwarul Alam Babul (badminton), Alhaj Mohammad Solaiman (swimming), ARM Mosaddequl Haq Rochi (table tennis), Omar Khaled Rumi (cricket), Sheikh Dalut-uz-Zaman (cricket-posthumous), and Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury and Begum Hosne Ara Khan (organizer).

The recipients for 2002 are: Major General (retd) Khandakar Nurun Nabi and Khairul Anwar Pearu (football), Minhazul Abedin Nannu and Nasir Ahmed Nasu (cricket), Azizullah Haider Jamal (hockey), Mosahrraf Hossain Shamim and Majibur Rahman Mallick (athletics), Mohammad Asif Hossain (shooting), Shahabuddin Ahmed (swimming), Nk M Badsha Miah (kabadi), Begum Kamrun Nahar Hiru (judo), Reefat bin Sattar (chess), Golam Aziz Jilani (badminton), and KZ Islam and Kutubuddin Ahmed (organizer).