Dhoni visits Ranchi to keep his date with National Games

A day after launching India's World Cup campaign with a convincing 87-run victory over Bangladesh, captain Dhoni today flew down to Ranchi via Kolkata to keep his promise to witness the National Games for at least one day.

Sporting a brown colour jacket, a grey cap and jeans, Dhoni spent more than half-an hour at the athletics venue as the day saw the entire Ranchi turned out on a cloudy Sunday evening.

Dhoni expressed his gratitude to the BCCI and ICC for granting him a day's permission to visit the Games during the busy schedules of the World Cup.

"I am really grateful to the BCCI and ICC for giving me one day's permission. I had requested them and it's nice that they considered and let me come here. I feel very happy to be here and nice to see the National Games going on with full swing," Dhoni told reporters.

The Indian skipper took the centrestage when he distributed medals to the winners in the men's 400m hurdles event and exchanged pleasantries with the athletes.

Earlier in the afternoon, he made a visit to the Birsa Munda Football Stadium in Morhabadi during the halftime of the Goa vs Jharkhand preliminary round match.

Accompanied by deputy chief minister and sports minister Sudesh Mahto, Dhoni entered the Mohrabadi stadium around 3:30pm as he went on to spend around 30 minutes with loud cheers from the packed house.

He is scheduled to leave for Bangalore early morning tomorrow.
India next play England in their second World Cup fixture in Bangalore on February 26.