On a hiatus from the cricket field, senior Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni was spotted playing football with actor Arjun Kapoor in Mumbai on Sunday, 28 July.
Sporting a ‘Playing for Humanity’ jersey, the former India captain was part of a training session in Juhu.
Dhoni, who had made himself unavailable for India’s tour of West Indies, is set to serve his paramilitary regiment during his sabbatical from the national team. While earlier reports had said that he had already joined his battalion, the 38-year-old’s visit to Mumbai suggests otherwise.
Earlier on Friday, Bollywood actors including Ranbir Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan and Arjun were seen in action playing football in heavy rain on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas.
A team of Bollywood stars were up against a team of armed forces in the game of football on Friday evening. Ranbir, Abhishek, Arjun, Ishan Khatter, Aparshakti Khurana and others were seen playing against the Army-Navy Stars XI at a football ground in a Mumbai suburb.
Dhoni however, only arrived in the city on Saturday, 27 July.
In a statement on 25 July, the Indian Army said: "Lieutenant Colonel (Honorary) MS Dhoni is proceeding to 106 TA Battalion (Para) for being with the Battalion from 31 Jul-15 Aug 19."
The statement said that the unit will be posted in the Kashmir valley as part of the Victor Force. “As requested by the officer and approved by Army Headquarters; he will be taking on the duties of patrolling, guard and post duty and would be staying with troops,” the statement read.
The 38-year-old holds the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army unit of the Parachute Regiment (106 Para TA battalion).
The honour was accorded to him by the Indian Army in 2011 along with Abhinav Bindra and Deepak Rao.
In 2015, the Ranchi lad became a qualified paratrooper after having completed five parachute training jumps from Indian Army aircrafts in the Agra training camp.
Ever since the culmination of the World Cup in the UK where India reached the semi-finals, speculation has been rife about Dhoni's retirement, but the team management has asked him to hang around as they groom Rishabh Pant with an eye on the 2020 World T20 in Australia.
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