Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday got engaged to his childhood friend Sakshi Singh Rawat at a private function in a hotel in Dehradun with just family members and close friends present. The marriage is likely to take place after India's home series against Australia in October.
The engagement for Dhoni, one of India's most successful captain, comes just four days before his 29th birthday. "Dhoni and his school friend Sakshi got engaged at Hotel Bhagirath in Dehradun," a close family friend told PTI in Ranchi. "Besides the family members of Dhoni, a few close friends of the cricketer were present during the engagement ceremony," he added.
Dhoni's engagement was kept a closely guarded secret and sources said that none of his cricketer friends and other celebrities was present. It was only late in the night that the news of his engagement broke. Dhoni and Sakshi, who hails from Aurangabad, had been school friends at DAV, Shamily in Ranchi.
"Their fathers worked together in MECON, and the Rawats moved to Dehradun after retirement," the friend said. Asked whether any date for marriage has been fixed, he said, "not yet, may be after the Australian series."
The Indian captain is currently enjoying a rare break with the next three-Test series against Sri Lanka scheduled to begin from July 18 at Galle. The Indian team will play a warm-up game before that. Dhoni, who made his international debut against Bangladesh in December 2004, has so far played 43 Tests, 166 ODIs and 25 T20s.
Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Cup Twenty20, CB Series of 2007 08, and the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2008 in which they beat Australia 2 0.
He also captained Chennai Super Kings to victory in the recent IPL 2010. He is now captain of India in all three forms of the game and also led the team to their first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under his charismatic leadership, India attained the number one status in Test cricket and managed to be the number two this year in ODI rankings.
Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2009. PTI
