Dhoni voted youth icon 2006

MUMBAI: Dashing wicketkeeper-batsman M S Dhoni has been voted as the Pepsi & MTV Youth Icon 2006.

He joins the ranks of industrialist Anil Ambani and film star Shah Rukh Khan, who have been the youth icons in the previous years.

This year's finalists were Navjot Singh Sidhu (Television), Abhijeet Sawant (Music), Dr Vijay Mallaya (Business), President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam (Science), John Abraham (Films) and Dhoni in the sports category.

A press release issued here on Friday said Dhoni won the hearts of young India with the maximum number of votes out of the lakhs that came online and through SMS.

The six finalists were selected after a comprehensive ten city study conducted by IMRB, a leading research agency.

The sample size included youngsters aged 15 and 24 from ten cities of Ahmedabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

An MTV Youth Icon TV special with Dhoni will be announced later, the release said.