Dhoni & Co. combine with Ranbir Kapoor & Drogba to promote football in India

When Bollywood combines with sports, it is more or less a guaranteed success. And when likes of Ranbir Kapoor shake hands with football superstar Didier Drogba for promoting the sport in the country, it is bound to catch the eyeballs of the public. And add to it the presence of cricketing stars like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and others, it definitely makes a heady cocktail.

This is what happened at the Thyagraj Stadium here in Delhi where Bollywood, cricket and football combined together to give the Delhites some respite from the scorching heat. The crowd filled the stands the moment the gates opened and waited anxiously for over six hours to see the stars they came in for.

When you hear about jam-packed stadiums, one thing that comes to mind is that it must be a cricket match or a rock show. Sunday evening was a mix of both.
Indian Captain MS Dhoni along with his men including Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh and M Vijay were to take on the all India champion captained by the Bollywood superstar Ranbir Kapoor in an exhibition football match.

Dhoni’s team was coached by the best Indian footballer of all time Bhaichung Bhutia and Ranbir’s team was coached was the man who scored the winning goal for Chelsea in the Champions League finals- Didier Drogba.

Pepsi claims that their effort is to ‘change the game’ and they could have never put up a better team that they put on Sunday. The atmosphere inside the stadium was thrilling, people were dancing and the unlike the cricket stadiums where they are quite far from the action, here they were within sniffing distance from their stars.

The first cricketer to reach was Virat Kohli and he said that it is fascinating to see such a support for a game other than cricket. Kohli also said that his captain MS is the best footballer in the team.

The fans went crazy when MS Dhoni stepped on to the podium with his Chennai Super Kings teammate Suresh Raina. Dhoni said, “It’s great to be here, I hope one day the cricket matches will be played inside the air-conditioned stadiums.” When asked about the best footballer in the team, Dhoni said that it is Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina that you want to keep an eye on.

All the cricketers looked fascinated to see Drogba present in the house and showed tremendous respect to the player who has done wonders both on and off the field. Bhutia said that he has never witnessed anything like that in the Ambedkar Stadium as well and said that it is great to see such support for football.

The cricketers might have been outplayed in the exhibition match, but that was not the real reason for them to be there, they truly wanted to promote the game and they achieved their target there.

By Indian Sports News Network