Dhoni and Deepika at Indian express Sahara sports awards

Dhoni and Deepika at Indian express Sahara sports awards

Dhoni, others party after India's defeat

Photographs from a Hyderabad hotel aired by the television channel NewsX, has shown captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and some of his famous teammates enjoying the company of male and female admirers at a party which the channel claimed was held after India lost to Australia by three runs in Hyderabad on Thursday.

The loss put India 2-3 behind in the series before Dhoni's Indians succumbed meekly in Guwahati on Sunday to lose the home series. The seventh and final match is scheduled to be played in Navi Mumbai today.

The channel reported yesterday that the party was held within hours of the thrilling match which witnessed an epic innings of 175 from Sachin Tendulkar, whose effort went in vain due to to some careless bowling, fielding and batting by his teammates.

On a special show aired last night, channel guest Bishan Singh Bedi, the former India captain said that it was not unusual for players to let their hair down in a party. "Nothing wrong with it. After all, they are all adults," he said. But when the show host asked whether it was the right thing to do in the midst of an important series, Bedi remarked, "Now that is a big question mark."

Bedi wondered whether this was the reason why players were against the World Anti Doping Agency's whereabouts clause in the International Cricket Council's anti-doping procedure. He also seemed amazed as to how the Board was behind its players who refused to give out their whereabouts after play.

Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra and rookie Ravindra Jadeja feature in the photographs.Journalist Gulu Ezekiel, the second guest on the show, refused to slam the players for their decision to party, but was amazed how fresh they could get after an energy-sapping match. The channel identified fast bowler Pravin Kumar as a smoker at the party.

A few former players whom MiD DAY contacted said they had not seen the shots, so were in no position to comment. However, former captain Chandu Borde, who managed Indian teams in the past, the latest instance being the 2007 tour of England, felt that it was time the Board appoints a permanent manager who would ensure discipline.

At the moment, the manager's post for every tour is distributed as rewards for votes in BCCI elections. No manager is appointed for a home series.Cricket fans in Mumbai were not impressed too. Sandip Mehta, a businessman said: "Play hard, party hard but do that only after a victory. If you lose, go out for a quiet meal or better still, stay in your room and indulge in some introspection."

Ramji Dharod, a former Mumbai club cricketer, said that the most shocking aspect of the photographs shown on television was the sight of Dhoni. "If what we saw on television is true (that the cricketers attended a party after the Hyderabad defeat) then it is very sad. As captain, these public appearances don't do his image good. It doesn't send out the right kind of signals especially to your juniors," he said.

Dhoni and Harbhajan send police into tizzy

Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh today sent the police here into a tizzy as they left the team hotel without informing the police while Yuvraj Singh also went out declining an offer to have security personnel with him.

The police said they were not amused at the "irresponsible action" of the players and have prepared a report about the "security violations" made by them.

Man-of-the-match in India-Australia third one-dayer in Delhi Yuvraj Singh was the first to leave the Taj, the team hotel, and drove out in a car.

Yuvraj, who belongs to Chandigarh, drove out in a Audi bearing a temporary registration number of Haryana late this evening from the hotel in Sector 17 and returned a couple of hours later, police said.

Dhoni is all candour and humour

Disarming candour and humour were the intrinsic features of M.S. Dhoni’s interaction with the media here on Wednesday night.

After scoring 124 to ambush the Aussies in the second ODI of the Hero Honda Cup seven-match series here, Dhoni, when asked about his ‘special’ innings, said: “It is not that I have scored many centuries so I will keep all of them in my memory.

“It was a good innings but it was a team effort and not just about me. When I went in the run-rate was good and even if scored at five an over we would have had a good base,” Dhoni said.

Dhoni said that even he would have opted to field first if he had won the toss. “Dew was a factor and with spinners in my attack even I would have fielded first. I am happy with the way all the bowlers performed.

“Harbhajan bowled two bad overs but after that he did get his lines right and he is slowly getting there. Ishant is bowling with rhythm and his pace has gone up,” Dhoni said.
Fine innings

Meanwhile Ricky Ponting said that the Indian batsmen were too good and that Dhoni played a fine innings. “We reasoned about the dew factor and the fact that we were missing a bowler like Brett Lee so we decided to back our batsmen and opted to chase.

“Didn’t work out the way I expected though,” Ponting said and admitted that he missed a bowler like Glenn McGrath to bowl in the death. “Today was an opportunity for your younger players to step up and perform. I am sure they will learn along the way,” Ponting said.

Meannwhile, wicket-keeper Tim Paine will fly back home after suffering a broken finger here on Wednesday. “Paine has broken a finger and he will fly out immediately. Because of the different time zones we are unable to get in touch with our selectors back home though we do have David Boon here with us.

“I am sure we will get a replacement in time for the Delhi match (October 31),” said Ponting.

Managers fight for Brand Dhoni

This is a googly India’s most expensive cricketer MS Dhoni seems to be unable to deal with. Mindscapes Maestros, the celebrity and sports management firm that Dhoni is an advisor to, on Tuesday said Dhoni remains with the company, though his business manager Yudhajit Dutta was on the verge of leaving the company.

Prateek Sen, one of the directors on board of Mindscapes Maestros and also a co-promoter of the company, told ET on Tuesday: “Mindscapes is managing Dhoni’s business. Yudhajit Dutta, erstwhile manager of Dhoni, will no longer be part of the company and will no longer manage the cricketer’s business.”

An official announcement would be made soon and a public notice would also be issued in this regard, Mr Sen said. Mr Dutta, also a co-promoter and a minority stake holder with Mindscapes, however, said: “I continue to hold stake in Mindscapes and I continue to be with Dhoni.”

An sms query to Dhoni on the matter remained unanswered at the time of going to press. As first reported by ET last month, serious internal differences have cropped up between stake holders Pratik Sen and Ranadeb Paul on one side, and Dhoni’s manager, Yudhajit Dutta on the other. It is alleged that Mr Dutta had set up a new celebrity management firm – Purple People - without the knowledge of his partners.

Last year, Dhoni had parted ways with his management agency of three years, Gameplan Sports, and joined Mr Dutta, a former employee of Gameplan. Dhoni’s valuation the endorsement circuit is learnt to be around Rs 3.5-5 crore per endorsement deal a year.

Dhoni's lookalike Deepak Sharma Photo

Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni wears a turban

Sachin Tendulkar takes photos of the post-match presentation while Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag look on

Sachin Tendulkar wears a turban at the inauguration of a cricket academy, Pune

Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni wear turbans at the inauguration of a cricket academy, Pune

Dhoni's top spot in ICC ODI ranking under threat

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's numero uno status in ICC ODI batsmen's ranking is under threat as few good knocks from West Indies captain Chris Gayle or his teammate Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the upcoming England series may topple him from the top spot.

Dhoni is currently the only batsman above the 800-point mark but Gayle is not too far behind as he trails the Indian by 33 points, while Chanderpaul is another four points behind which means the order could potentially change with a couple of strong performances by the two West Indian cricketers.

However, failure of the pair would directly benefit the fourth-placed Yuvraj Singh of India and Australia's Michael Hussey in fifth position who are waiting to pounce on any opportunity that comes their way.

Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar is 13th while team-mate Virender Sehwag (7th) and Gautam Gambhir (17th) are the other Indians in the top 20.

Left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan continues to be the only Indian in the top-20 bowlers' list, headed by Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara.

Among all-rounders, Yuvraj Singh remains to be the only Indian with Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan leading the list.

In the team championships, India is third behind Australia and table toppers South Africa.

I will marry Dhoni: Laxmi Rai

Actress Laxmi Rai is waiting for cricketer boyfriend to propose
M.S. Dhoni’s personal and professional life is on a high. While his cricket team Chennai Super Kings is among those at the top in the ongoing IPL, his love life is in good form too.

There have been reports linking him to South star Laxmi Rai, and now the confirmation has come from the lady herself.

Laxmi Rai is smitten by the Indian cricket captain. She has said she met Dhoni last year and since then their relationship has been growing.

They have been dating for quite some time now.

Laxmi said Dhoni is a gem of a person and is also very affectionate.

Laxmi has revealed one more secret. She said that if ever Dhoni proposes to her, she will readily agree to marry him.

Laxmi Rai is a model cum actress. She has also been Miss Karnataka.

After making her name in the film industry down south, Laxmi is now turning to Bollywood. Even though she rejected Himesh Reshammiya’s “Hey Gujju”, after watching his film “Karz”, she is hopeful she will get better offers.

This is not Dhoni’s first relationship with an actress. In the past, he was briefly linked with Deepika Padukone.

Ms Dhoni in John’s film!

We all know that John and Dhoni are good friends and always there for each other. Since, John is doing Hook Yaa Crook which has a backdrop of Cricket there are lots of possibilities of his personal friend Dhoni featuring in it.

“Mahi is a personal friend and in this film we have used his name for more than a million times. I haven’t spoken to Dhoni as yet because cricket is just a backdrop of the film. It will be an honor to have someone like him in the film but nothing has been finalised", said John.M