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In India, for a common public of the last generation, if they had any sort of interest in watching and following a sport – it will most probably be Cricket. It is almost the blood and skin of many a million passionate followers in India. Football in general is something of a foreign game and they don’t just generally relate to it in the first place(speaking about common public).
But the current generation of youth were much more exposed to the international game that is played world-wide unlike cricket, revealing it’s superiority. In no means to degrade the gentleman’s game, football is way over cricket in money and power which are the results of immense popularity and fame.
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Cricket in general played over a whole-day and even the longest format taking five days can never compete with football in making a new follower and make them to observe the game patiently. That is definitely not the only reason football is superior to cricket.
In India, at-least for the next two generations, cricket will rule. A single square cut off Rahul Dravid’s bat in a whole day was more entertaining for me in 2000s than a closely contested goaless football game. No offence readers, just like average public, I’m just so much more addicted to Cricket. With almost every engineering graduate in their hostel to have tried a hand at the official FIFA game in their laptops and many even getting addicted to it, expect more followers for the game among the next generation.
Twenty-20 is not proper cricket, but I’m afraid it is the format that is going to survive through time. With very little gap in cricketing calender these days and with the mischievous kid of BCCI – IPL ending its exhibition a week before, how much the FIFA World Cup, that gets underway next week can be of importance to a cricket follower like me.
Many from our country will not even know footballers other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Apart from the traditional powerhouses in world football, even a die-hard cricket fan cannot be able to recall 10 teams from leagues other than the most popular English Premier League. But thanks to the vast improvement of media and internet, we, the 90s kids, are the ones who witnessed the change-over from ‘Doordarshan’ to ‘Star Sports’, from ‘Video games’ to ‘Playstations’, from ‘Floppy-disks’ to ‘Blue-ray disks’,... the list can grow. And most importantly in the context – being the ones who heard of football and fans of football.
My generation that witnessed the later part of Alex Ferguson era, will forever remember Cristiano Ronaldo along with Wayne Rooney who made the oppositon defenders look like stones to help Manchester United script comeback after comeback. And on the other hand to see Chelsea finally win something under Jose Mourinho, they know football better than their predecessers.
But sadly that alone is not enough for Indian football to reach the world’s standards. It is true that the current Indian Football team is on the path to greatness, but the pace of that travel is not convincing enough. Hence, with no connection to world cup but to cheer for their favourite strikers and playmakers, it is practically hard to expect them to be awake at midnight for Brazil 2014. Eventhough, if not me, many others will. Without any doubt there will more voice for the home team as the traditional powerhouse and also for Germany and Spain. Portugal and Argentina can find some supporters for their superstars.
With the newspaper reports that will reach them two days later, they will be addcited to the social networking sites in addition to the official sites to keep track of their favourite teams. There might not be a winning celebration or a losing cry in any of the homes after a fierce knockout match. But then at-least, in metros and football crazy cities, there will be many a youngsters sitting alone trying to keep their drowsiness away and shouting with the commentator on TV, ‘Cristiano Ronaaaaalldoooooooooo’. (P.S. if fit)
Welcome FIFA World Cup 2014.
