The first one of the Arjuna Awardees in Cricket was the great all-rounder Saleem Durani, who won the award in the very first year of its inception, in 1961. Since the inception of Cricket in India during the middle half of the nineteenth century, India has produced several cricketers, who have dominated the world of Cricket during their career. A number of those cricketers were also honored by the Government of India through the Arjuna Award. The number of Arjuna Awardees in Cricket is probably the highest in the history of the award so far. Only a few other sports have that many awardees.

After a gap of three years, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi received the award in the year 1964 and he was followed by Vijay Manjrekar, who won it in 1965. One of the greatest captains in the history of Indian Cricket, C. G. Borde was bestowed upon the award in 1966, while it was won by Ajit Wadekar in 1967. The year 1968 saw E.A.S Prasanna enlisting his name among the Arjuna Awardees in Cricket and one of India`s greatest spinners, Bishen Singh Bedi won it in 1969.

Nikhanj won it in the year of 1979-80. The famous cricketer D. N. Sardesai entered his name into the list of Arjuna Awardees in Cricket by winning the award in 1970. The next year, 1971, saw one of the magical spin quartet of India, S Venkataraghavan winning the Arjuna Award. In 1972, two cricketers jointly won the award and the cricketers were B.S. Chandrasekhar and E. D. Solkar. One of the legendary batsmen in the history of Indian Cricket and also World Cricket, Sunil Gavaskar won the Arjuna Award in 1975 and he was followed by S. Rangaswamy in 1976. Another legendary batsman of India, Gundappa Vishwanath became one of the Arjuna Awardees in Cricket in 1977-78. The year 1978-79 saw the world famous all rounder, Kapil Dev winning the Arjuna Award and in 1980-81, the award was given to C.P.S. Chauhan.

While the famous Wicket-keeper batsman of India, Syed Kirmani became one of the Arjuna Awardees in 1980-81, one of the most successful captains of India, D. Vengsarkar won it in 1981. M. Amarnath received the award in the year 1982 for his extraordinary performances in the cricket field and in 1983; the award went to Ms. D. Edulji. She became the first Indian women cricketer to win the Arjuna Award. Then in 1984, the award went to Ravi Shastri and the year 1985, Ms. S. D. Kulkarni won it. The year 1986 saw joint winners from Cricket, as both the famous cricketers like Ms. S. Agarwal and Mohammad Azharuddin were announced as the winners.

Though the Indian cricketers continued to win the Arjuna Award on a regular basis, there was a gap of 2 years for them, after 1986. No cricketer could win the award in 1987 and 1988. However, in 1989, Madan Lal entered his name into the list of Arjuna Awardees in Cricket. There was again a gap of 4 years for the cricketers to win the award, before Kiran More and Manoj Prabhakar jointly won it in 1993. In 1994, the Indian Government honoured one of the all time greatest batsmen of India, Sachin Tendulkar with the Arjuna Award. The award went to another great cricketer, Anil Kumble in the year 1995, and Javagal Srinath won it in 1996. The year 1997 again saw joint winners of Arjuna Award from Cricket, as both Ajay Jadeja and Saurav Ganguly won the award.

The next year 1998 also saw joint winners of the Arjuna Award from Cricket and in this year, the award went to Nayan Ramlal Mongia and Rahul Dravid. B. K. Venkatesh Prasad became one of the Arjuna Awardees in Cricket in 2000 and VVS Laxman followed him to win the award in 2001. The winner of this award in 2002 was Virender Sehwag, while in 2003; it was jointly won by Ms. Mithali Raj and Harbhajan Singh. After Mithali Raj, another famous women cricketer of India, Ms. Anju Jain became successful to win the award in 2005 and so far, the last name in the list of Arjuna Awardees in Cricket is Anjum Chopra. Anjum won the award in the year, 2007.