Dhoni gets MCC life membership

LONDON: The prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), housed at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground, on Wednesday, awarded ‘Life Membership’ to World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni along with four other distinguished India internationals.

Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, former women’s national team captain Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were also given ‘Life Membership’. The club’s cricket committee considers the nomination of players for life membership as recognition to the ‘outstanding international careers for some of the greats of the game’.

The membership is also given to those individuals who have made an ‘exceptional contribution’ to the club or the sport. “Five Indian players have been recognised with Honorary Life Membership. Jhulan Goswami, who bowed out from internationals in the England v India Women’s One-Day International at Lord’s last year, is the leading wicket-taker in women’s ODIs whilst Mithali Raj heads the run-scoring list with 7,805 in 211 innings,” said the MCC on its website.

“MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were both integral parts of the India side which won the 2007 ICC Men’s World T20 and the 2011 ICC Men’s World Cup, and Suresh Raina scored over 5,500 ODI runs across a 13-year career,” it added.

Guy Lavender, the CEO and secretary of the MCC, said: “The names that have been announced are some of the greatest international players of modern times, and we are privileged to now count them as valued Members of our Club.”