NEWSMAKER: Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Poster boy of Indian cricket

His Bollywood idol is said to be John Abraham though his favourite actor is Amitabh Bachchan. His cricketing idols are Sachin Tendulkar and Adam Gilchrist.

Of course, he's managed to break the latter's world record for the maximum number of dismissals in a given innings. Meet Indian cricket's latest poster boy, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who became the highest-paid cricketer for BCCI's DLF Indian Premier League.

India Cements, the owner of the Chennai team, picked up Dhoni at an auction in Mumbai for a whopping Rs 6 crore for one season of Twenty20 tournament scheduled for April 2008.

Dhoni rose to fame after the men in blue bagged the world championship at the ICC World Twenty20 last year, under his captaincy. However, he soon came under the scanner for keeping the big daddies of cricket, Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly, out from the Tri-series in Australia.

Some of his recent performances have been commendable "" during the one day Tri-series in Australia he scored 50 runs from 68 balls and wasn't out till the end, resulting in India's victory by two wickets.

Media experts say that the aggressive right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper is in the limelight for being in good form and that has led to his stock shooting up in the last auction. He was acquired for more than the bidding price for seasoned players like Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.

After the Twenty20 win, Dhoni has become a hot favourite with the advertisers too. His endorsement rates are said to have shot up from around Rs 1 crore per brand to nearly Rs 1.75 crore per brand, according to advertising and media industry estimates.

He endorses brands such as Pepsi, Reebok, Exide, TVS Motors, Mysore Sandal Soap, Videocon, Reliance Communications, Reliance Energy, ORIENT PSPO fan, Bharat Petroleum, Titan, GE Money and Siyaram, among others.

Mahi, as he's fondly addressed by his peers, started playing cricket in 1999-2000. He made his debut in the Bihar cricket team and was selected for a tour to Kenya in 2004. He established himself when he made a couple of centuries with Gautam Gambhir against Pakistan A team in the triangular tournament in Kenya.

In his fifth one-dayer, against Pakistan at Visakhapatnam, he cracked a scintillating 148 followed by a colossal 183 not out at Jaipur against Sri Lanka. It was here that he broke Adam Gilchrist's record for the highest score by a wicketkeeper in ODIs.

In 2005, BCCI gave him the 'B' grade contract and he was upgraded to 'A' grade only in 2007. This followed his appointment as captain of the Indian Twenty20 team for the World Twenty20 in September 2007.

The tournament resulted in India's victory against Pakistan in the finals. Dhoni went on to become the second Indian captain to have won a World Cup in any form of cricket. The first was Kapil Dev.

Now that the 27-year-old swashbuckling cricketer from Ranchi has become the highest paid IPL player in the country, he could perhaps add to his collection of chunky watches, his favourite accessory.