Football over Cricket: Anytime, anyday

Keeping aside the fundamental differences between cricket and football, which is the nature of both these sports, below are a few reasons why I believe football is better than cricket. It is just a personal opinion and hopefully doesn’t violate the constitution of the sporting fraternity. I am going to get a lot of stick from fervent cricketing proponents, but I shall declare that I am in no way anti-cricket.

1) 22 players from both the teams in football are in constant action for 90 minutes, with an interval of about 15 minutes between two halves of 45 minutes each. Despite the fact that the Goalkeeper is hardly called into action, the frequency of his intervention is greater than that of a fielder in cricket who simply merely has to wait for the ball to come his way. This helps in concluding that cricket in fact is a “Lazy man’s game”.

2) Football is played even amidst torrid rainfall. Whereas in cricket, the pitch is the most sacred entity.

3) Football necessitates even the referees to be physically and mentally fit (though most of their decisions are incorrect/ inconsistent). In cricket, the umpires are required to have great mental fitness (which is a good thing), but are not as active as referees in football.

4) Cricket is deemed to be a “gentleman’s game”. Football is quite simply not.

Fundamental debate

Let us look at both the sports in conjunction with what they deliver to the player.

1) All that is required to play football is ‘ball and your feet’. For some, an imaginary goal is a prerequisite. The basic ingredients that constitute the game of cricket are Bat, ball, stumps, gloves, helmet, pads (only the first 3 are mandatory, the rest is usually professional compliance)

2) The idea of football is to have possession and convert that possession into goals. It is hardly a biased affair. Cricket generally suffers from “domination of the batsmen over the bowlers”. It is therefore also dubbed as a ‘batsman’s game’. Though pitches are now being tailor made to suit the bowlers, which in fact is a reflection of the juggernaut batsmen’s are.

3) The general format of cricket, excluding the T20 format, is a bit dilatory. Test matches and “Life imprisonment” become synonymous.

Despite the above accusations, cricket is still the most revered sport in our country, but the global appeal and admiration rests with football.