Dhoni ties knot with longtime friend Sakshi in Dehradun

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. 

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.

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.