Dhoni ties knot with longtime friend Sakshi in
Dehradun:-


DEHRADUN: Rapid-fire
batting and a
passion for fast bikes. That's long been the Mahi way. And on Sunday,
the Indian
cricket captain's love for speed was once again on display. Within a day
of
Dhoni's engagement to Sakshi Singh Rawat, the couple got married at
Vishranti
Resort, located in the usually sleepy Lower Kandoli village, around 25km
from
Dehradun. In keeping with a romance that was kept tightly under wraps
for almost
two years, the wedding too was a fiercely private affair, with only
family and
close friends in attendance.


There were barely 50 guests, though some
10 dishes had been prepared. Given Dhoni's son-of-the-soil, feet firmly
grounded
image, the cuisine was predictably all-Indian, with nary an exotic dish
in
sight.


Dhoni reportedly wore a midnight blue sherwani. Ashish, the
man who got the mare that Dhoni rode to the wedding, was ecstatic at
having the
Indian skipper as a client. Said he, "Dhoni asked me the name of the
mare. I
told him it had two names, Rani and Bobby. He liked the second better.
At the
end of the ride, he gave me Rs 5,001."


According to sources, the
jaimala ceremony took place at 9.30pm followed by the pheras at 11pm.
Dhoni wore
a sehra, said to be priced at Rs 10,000, made by Charandas of Dehradun's
famous
Paltan Bazar.


The resort, owned by former Ranji Trophy player Michael
Dalvi, is in the thickets of the Mussorrie foothills. From Vasundhara
Raje
Scindia and Adhiraj Singh, to cricketers like Arun Lal and Bollywood
royalty,
it's hosted them all. But Sunday's ceremony could well make it a local
tourist
attraction.


Meanwhile, even as fans burst crackers and distributed
sweets in Dhoni's home town Ranchi, the ceremony itself was a
closely-guarded
affair.


The resort, spread over 125 acres, was ringed with two-tier
security. The inner ring comprised private security guards while 400
policemen
from Uttarakhand cordoned off the resort. Mediapersons were stopped 2km
away
from the resort. Sakshi's cousin, IPS officer Abhilasha Bisht, was said
to be
helping supervise the security arrangements.


Actor John Abraham ^ a
close friend of Dhoni's who will be hosting a party for the couple in
Mumbai on
Wednesday ^ was among the celebrities present. Around half an hour
before the
auspicious time, Dhoni on horseback and other guests on foot moved to
the
bride's place, located on the same resort's premises.


John's
girlfriend and actress Bipasha Basu couldn't be there, but tweeted her
best
wishes. "Wishing Mahi and Sakshi a very happy life together forever. Sad
that I
can't be there," she wrote.


Bipasha also revealed that contrary to
the popular notion that Dhoni decided to get married on the spur of the
moment,
the wedding was planned months in advance.


"The wedding on Sunday
night was all planned. But no one was supposed to know about it.
Whatever the
truth, we must all be happy for the couple. It's party time!" she said.



Of the Indian cricketers, only Suresh Raina, R P Singh, and
Harbhajan Singh were present. Raina, who's known for his fancy footwork
on the
cricket pitch, was also reported to have displayed it with much gusto
during the
baraat procession.


BCCI bigwigs were also invited, but most couldn't
make it as they were busy inaugurating indoor cricket facilities in
Ranchi. The
notable exception who did turn up was N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and
managing
director of India Cements which owns Chennai Super Kings, the Indian
Premier
League team captained by Dhoni


The locals got to know about the
high-profile wedding on Saturday morning itself when innumerable cars
kept
passing the area and the frequency increased on Sunday morning till the
marriage
actually began. Also, a lot of the local people took their cars and
two-wheelers
to get a view of their favourite captain's wedding. But they faced the
same fate
as the media -- no entry. Still, it was an exciting day for them in the
woods.


The 29-year-old cricketer from Ranchi has been one of the
hottest bachelor boys of India. His clean and straightforward image has
fetched
him dozens of endorsements making him among the highest-earning
cricketers in
the world.


Incidentally, while Dhoni now lives in Jharkand, his
family hails from a village near Binsar in Uttarakhand.


Both the
skipper and his bride are pahadis. Like the rest of his brethren, Dhoni
is a
deeply religious and spiritual person. The locals say that his long
hair, and
the subsequent cut, was on account of a mannat he made to a local deity
for a
place in the Indian team first, and gesture of gratitude
later.



Sakshi's father and Dhoni's father reportedly worked
together in Ranchi. Her grandfather, a retired divisional forest
officer, lives
in Dehradun. The couple know each other from their days in DAV School,
Ranchi


Sakshi graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management in
Aurangabad two months ago. She is currently working with Taj Bengal,
Kolkata.
Both Dhoni and Rawat are originally from Uttarakhand.


Dhoni has been
linked with a string of actresses in the past. But tongues started
wagging about
his involvement with the low-profile Sakshi, now 21, when they were
first seen
together in Aurangabad. Sakshi was also seen with Dhoni on November 19
when they
went for a rickshaw ride on her 21st birthday. Such privacy is a luxury
that
she's unlikely to get, now that she's married to 'Captain Cool'.