My experiments with the beautiful game

The beautiful game is what they call it, and I can’t think of any better words to describe it. A sport that is watched and revered by hundreds of millions around the world, football is something you can call a true global sport.

My love for the game came about in the noughties. The first game that I watched was the 2002 WC Final – Oliver Kahn’s Germany v Cafu’s Brazil. I rooted for the Europeans despite my negative infinity knowledge about a certain Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know who Zinedine Zidane was until the time Materazzi got himself head butted into Disney Land!

I love Football

What I meant to say was that there was a four year gap between the first football match that I ever experienced in my life and the second! So, it goes without saying that I’m still a plain rookie when it comes to historical accuracies or even the knowledge about it.

But if you were beginning to think that I really got into football since, you’re terribly mistaken. My next encounter with a football game was in the virtual world. Yes, I’m talking about the famous EA Sports FIFA franchise. Still, it was FIFA ’09 that I played in February 2009. Remember when people talk about their lives they always mention a turning point that made all the difference. This was the one for me!

The floodgates to my world of football opened when I clicked on the kick off button. A little insight on why it meant so much to me, I believe, should help clear any lingering doubts.

All my life I had been an ardent cricket fanatic. I was in the company of people who had nothing but their life to devote to cricket. Does this sound passive? Do you think so?

Not so much when you take into account over a billion people that would readily kick out Bernie Ecclestone and his toy cars out of their country if it meant that they could watch Sachin Tendulkar score his 100^th ton or if it meant India could once again lift the World Cup!

So the passion was all there but it had stagnated, unknown to me, over quite some time. The bubble burst when I understood that cricket no longer gave me the adrenaline rush that it once used to. No offence to the die-hard supporters, but I lost my interest in a sport which I felt was revolutionising itself to suit the needs of corporate bigwigs. Never in my life have I heard about a sport that had to constantly evolve just so it could survive! Besides, the media did not help my condition any better.

When the time for me to convey this decision to my frat – pack arrived, sans any hesitation, I put things in a nutshell and said what was on my mind – consequently, I got the boot!

I got booted out – so what? I will prove my point to them.

I picked myself up and started out satisfying my adrenaline cravings. I followed the beautiful game with a new found vengeance and had a burning will to prove to the pack that I was not wrong to deviate from our collective interests.

Now this is where the interesting part occurs. As soon as I had an idea about the world of football, a major reality sunk in. What was going to be my favourite club? Frankly, I had no clue!

I found that aspect to be a bit amusing because I never had to do this when my heart and soul was for cricket. I grew up supporting my home nation and nobody else. Even if you bring upon the topic of domestic cricket, I would dare you to prove me otherwise when I say that people only started caring about the domestic part when the IPL doomed on us!

Unlike cricket, I did not have the privilege of choosing from one of the Indian football clubs because for fear of not having a voice in the much larger community. So I enrolled myself in the Indian School of European Club Football Fanaticism (I SEC FF) along with the few million crazies that were already its members.

Hundreds of hours of live action and millions of YouTube clips later, I came to a conclusion. Liverpool FC was the way ahead for me. Strange choice, you may think, but I well and truly believed and still believe to this day that not supporting Liverpool FC was never an option for me. Till date, I haven’t managed to pucker up a substantial reason to back my decision. And so it leads me to think that maybe, it was not a choice. Maybe, it was in my destiny.

But the story doesn’t end there. The frat-pack managed to crawl their way back in again. It all began with the excitement that I put on public display whenever I was into the game. I never held myself back from exhibiting the navarasas that the lobs and crosses and headers and misses would bring out of me!

While I amused myself every single weekend with some edge-of-the-seat adrenaline pumping action, the pack had to wait for the next tour to begin. But the barriers broke and it couldn’t have been on a better day! It was during the North-West derby – Manchester United vs Liverpool.

They grabbed a table, sat right behind my ear and struck up a conversation suggesting that Manchester United was the best team. The pack slated Liverpool supporters for rallying behind a team that had achieved virtually nothing domestically. They were right about the best team part – Berbatov’s hat trick had torn us apart. But the intent here was good; they wanted me back, to have a hot sports debate over a cup of coffee.

Frat-Pack right at my ear during the game….

… but later we all reconciled!

I did not budge but I was enjoying the moment deep down. What had just happened? A bunch that never really concerned themselves with anything other than cricket wanted to have a chat about football! That was an amazing achievement, at least for me. I had managed to work my way back into the pack. Now every time we sit down for a chat, the discussion board is not Strictly Come Cricket anymore!

I’d like to make myself clear about one thing. They are still the very same cricket nutheads that they have always been and I doubt if anything could possibly bring about a change of heart. With that in mind, I seriously doubt if any other sport that I had started watching would have initiated such a change in the frat-pack rules. If any one of you thought, “Well, golf can do wonders!”, then you should be living under a rock. Go back and read the headline of this article and stuff your mouth with Oreos!

Golf lovers should try this for a change!

To put my experience down to simple terms, I batted out the first innings and came back uninjured for the second-half kick-off. But what beholds me and my gilt-edged adrenaline gland in the future is up to the Mayans! Oh for Pete’s sake, get somebody else to prepare a new 5000 year calendar!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 FOLKS!