Which is the most popular game in the world?
Football, I said without hesitation to my P.T sir.
You are wrong. Cricket is the most popular game in the world. In India football is played only in Goa, Kolkata and kerala, was the justification I got from him.
I am a Goan based in Mumbai, but I have never seen my cousin, friends, in Goa talk, watch or play football.
Kolkata is said to be the home of Indian football. Two of the football clubs, East Bengal and Mohan Bagan were established before the giants Manchester utd and Arsenal. The people in Kolkata are said to be fanatic about the game. Kolkata have got the biggest football stadium (Salt Lake) in world.
A couple of months back the city of joy hosted a friendly between Argentina and Venezuela and it was to witness the world’s most exciting player Messi. It’s said that the city had turned in mini Argentina. The match-day was nothing different. More than 77 thousand crowd flocked in to cheer for the teams which belonged to different continents, miles apart, had no Indian connection. It was a turning point in Indian football. For the first time a football match generated more revenue than a cricket match in India.
So going by these stats what would one expect when India play a friendly match in Kolkata?
I was expecting the stadium to be atleast half filled. Three days back India had put on a spirited performance against Malaysia. However that match had received no media coverage. This match was going to get the same treatment, however DD sports came to the rescue and took the broadcasting rights at the last minute.
The match began at 6.30. As expected the quality of the broadcast was below average. Sorry, it was so bad, it showed as India had never heard about something called as Hd. The commentary was pathetic. The camera angles were atrocious. The score board was crappy. And the clock was so unfootballish. The clock was reset after half time as what one see’s in hockey and it didn’t show the added time.
The biggest disappointment was the crowd. A mere 5000 spectators were present in a stadium that has a capacity of more than 1 lakh. Sunil Chhetri and Jeje , the 2 Indian strikers were selected for trials in rangers earlier this week but that was not enough to attract more crowd . The people of Kolkata surely missed one of the positive display shown by India. They beat Malaysia 3-2.
Yes India won!
But what does this mean to the people of India?
After the match I switched the channel to see if any news channel cared to show the result as their headline. But none of them did. People want to know if Aishwarya Rai delivered a baby or not, but they don’t care if India win a football game. Those who follow football boast about the premier league club they support, but 85% of them didn’t even know that India played today.
In January India play against the German giants Bayern Munich and after that India go to South Africa.
Though cricket is religion in India one should not just write off Football (The beautiful game).
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