Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former Indian captain, has been awarded the third-highest civilian award in India, the Padma Bhushan. The Indian wicketkeeper is the 11th Indian cricketer to receive this honour. The 36-year-old made his international debut in the year 2004 against Bangladesh and currently regarded as one of the best wicketkeepers in the world.
In 2007, Dhoni was appointed as the captain of the Indian team. He led India to glory and won the first-ever T20I world cup held in South Africa. Later he turned out to be the most successful Indian skipper and won the ODI World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013. It was under him that India topped the Test rankings.
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Dhoni has already received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007 followed by the Padma Shri award in 2009. Here’s the full of all those cricketers who have received this national honour in the past:
| Sl No | Players | Year |
| 1 | CK Naydu | 1956 |
| 2 | Sir Vijay Anand Gajapathi Raju | 1958 |
| 3 | Vinoo Mankad | 1973 |
| 4 | Sunil Gavaskar | 1980 |
| 5 | Raja Bhalindra Singh | 1983 |
| 6 | Lala Amar Nath | 1991 |
| 7 | DB Deodhar | 1991 |
| 8 | Kapil Dev | 1991 |
| 9 | Chandu Borde | 2002 |
| 10 | Rahul Dravid | 2013 |
| 11 | MS Dhoni | 2017 |
‘Dhoni was the unanimous choice’ of the BCCI members for this honour. According to several media reports, earlier, while nominating his name, the Indian cricket board’s acting president CK Khana stated that he is one of the greatest cricketers in contemporary cricket .
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Apart from MS Dhoni, Srikanth Kidambi (Badminton), Nikhil Advani (Billiards/Snooker), Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting), Somdev Devvarman (Tennis) and Murlikant Petkar (Swimming) are the other sportspersons who received this honour.
