Former Indian captain MS Dhoni, one of the legends of limited over cricket has been conferred the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award by the government.
The official announcement was made by MHA on the eve of Republic Day. Under MS Dhoni, India has won all the three ICC tournaments viz, ICC World T20 trophy, Champions Trophy, and ICC World Cup. As test skipper, he took India to the number 1 spot in ICC rankings. Dhoni is still playing for India although he relinquished his captaincy to Virat Koghli a while back. Dhoni looks well set to also play in the 2019 ODI World Cup. He is arguaby hailed as the best captain India has ever had. Statistically, he still has the best record as captain of India both in ODIs and test matches.
For his IPL franchise CSK, he has won two IPL trophies and also the Champions Trophy.
The Jharkhand stumper, who led the Chennai Super Kings in the first eight editions of the IPL before it was suspended in the wake of the 2013 spot-fixing scam, said he was happy to be back at the franchise.
"I never thought of playing for any other franchise other than CSK. Chennai is my second home. Fans here have adopted me as one of their own," Dhoni said.
"A lot of people approached me, I can tell you that. But I can't think of not coming back to CSK. What we have been through, how we have conducted ourselves, how the management has been. How the fans have been. This is a special place. So that thought of being in any other franchise was never a question," he added.
He got the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007 and Padma Shri in 2009. Thursday's Padma Bhushan is another feather to the cap of the legendary player. He is the first player to get ICC ODI Player of the year award twice in a row.
With PTI inputs
