The mix was heady — Indian cricket superstars, a Bollywood heartthrob, the soccer face of the country for over one and a half decades and to top it all, a former Chelsea sharpshooter.

The 5,000 odd fans at Delhi’s Thyagraj Stadium lapped it up with glee as Didier Drogba’s maiden visit to the country left them asking for more.
The atmosphere reverberated with chants of ‘Drogba, Drogba’ as the 34-year-old made his way into the indoor arena and it was in no way less in energy that welcomed the other celebrities’ entry on the day. And it was the cricketers who were star-struck as M.S. Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh lined up to get their photographs clicked with the Ivory Coast striker even though four of them had starred with him in a commercial recently.
Although the Indian cricketers play a lot of football during practice sessions, they named one another when asked to pick the best one in the team.
“I guess Raina and Virat would be the best in the team,” said Dhoni, who himself was picked by Raina as the best.
Drogba, who connected with cricket much before the advertisment following India’s triumph in the last cricket World Cup, however, is still finding it tough to pronounce the names of Indian cricketers.
“The World Cup win made them famous. They did well and I followed their triumph. I know your captain (Dhoni) but it is so difficult to pronounce his name but I think he is a great leader,” Drogba said.
Drogba did have to learn some cricketing skills for the advertisement with the-then Chelsea teammates Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres but refused to divulge who of the three was worst with a bat and a ball.
“They are good friends and probably watching this somewhere. I don’t want to name one and face them when I go back,” he said with a grin.
The add-ons on the day were also no less impressive. Well known percussionist Sivamani, a group called Street Soccer Society and cheergirls kept the crowd entertained with their performances during the main agenda of the day — a T20 football competition played inside a cage less than half the size of an actual ground in air-conditioned surroundings. The blaring music throughout and a witty compere in Nikhil Chinnapa kept the fans involved and on their toes throughout the five-hour long performance.
The theme of the evening ‘change the game’ may have been well taken by the cricketers as they played a football match against a Delhi side led by Ranbir Kapoor but Drogba may not be seen playing cricket as he thinks it goes on for many days.
However, his kids may adopt the game as they are already playing it at the school level. “It took me some time to understand the game. It’s far too long and goes on for many days. But when some of my friends explained it to me, I found it interesting. My kids are already into it at school and I don’t want to push them into football.”
The Grand Finale would have missed the fizz if two of the best footballers in Drogba and Baichung Bhutia present inside the stadium would have been restricted to coaching duties of the Delhi side and cricketers respectively.
But few minutes into the first half of 20 minutes both the coaches decided to take matter into their hands as they entered the cage much to the delight of the crowd who had gathered in hope to see Drogba play. He had enacted a keepy-uppy during the press conference earlier but the crowd wanted to see some raw action which wasn’t quite possible given the space constraints. Drogba did score some goals but his Delhi side failed to put it past the cricketers in the penalty shoot out.
Dhoni, who by the end of the match was the clear winner for being the best footballer amongst cricketers, tweeted after the match: “Forgot to say anything about virat’s goalkeeping in the tie breaker, he was fantastic but him and raina together played well.”