DHONI

                            

Mahendra Singh Dhoni  (born 7 July 1981), commonly known as M. S. Dhoni, is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket team and the Chennai Super Kings. He is an attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh, and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka.

Dhoni is the captain of India in all three forms of the game. His Test and ODI records are the best among all Indian captains to date. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the CB Series of 2007–08, the 2010 Asia Cup and the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. In the final of the 2011 World Cup, he scored 91 not out of just 79 balls to take India to victory for which he was awarded the Man of the Match. After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008, he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and West Indies, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings. In 2013, under his captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series. He has also captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of Indian Premier League along with the 2010 Champions League Twenty20.

Dhoni also holds the post of Vice-President of India Cements Ltd. after resigning from Air India. India Cements is the owner of the IPL team Chennai Super Kings, and Dhoni has been its captain since the first edition of IPL.

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 in 2007 and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009. He was named as the captain of ICC World Test XI and ICC World ODI XI teams for 2009. In 2009, Dhoni topped the list of world’s top 10 earning cricketers compiled by Forbes^[and he has been ranked 31st richest sportsman in the world according to the Forbes' list of world's highest-paid athletes for the year 2012. Dhoni’s total earnings were estimated to be USD 26.5 million by Forbes.^] The TIME magazine added him in its "Time 100" list of 100 most influential people of 2011. SportsPro has rated MS Dhoni as the 16th most remarkable athlete in the world.