(Looking at the growing worldwide popularity of the game of
football, this article is about the importance of the sport, especially
for the poor and developing nations).
Cricket has been a national obsession in most of the developing and Third World countries.
It is about time that the game should be dropped from the status of
being the most popular sport. Rather football, aka soccer, must be
promoted as such.
Despite generating millions of fans in countries like Afghanistan to
Zimbabwe along with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc., from a
crop of only a few hundred cricketers, that a needed exit from its
elevated prestige is worth for the survival and flourishing of other
sports.
Over the past half of century, cricket has so much dominated the
sports scene in South Asia, parts of Africa and Europe, the Middle East,
and Caribbean Islands, that most other equally worthy sports have been
discriminatorily relegated to lower grades.
Cricket is an elite sport. It has acquired its status symbol among
the middle and rich people. It is an expensive outdoor indulgence. A
vast majority of poor youths can only enviously enjoy watching it (only
on TV). But they can not actively participate in this “gentleman’s
game.”
Compared to that the “common man’s game” of football is an
all-inclusive sporting event. It is undoubtedly the most popular of all
the world sports. It costs only a few bucks to buy a football. In
cricket, the total cost for all the equipment, bats, balls, wickets, and
the protective gears runs into thousands.
Not only that, in cricket of all the 22 players comprising the two
opposing teams, just three players, two batsmen and a bowler, actively
play the game at a given time. The rest of the 10 players supporting the
bowler are fielders. They come into action only when the ball is
delivered in the direction of any of them. Still, the nine players from
the batting side are sitting idle waiting for their turns to bat which
may not come at all for some or most of the players. The players are in
the game, but not playing!
And many times, the stretched out the game just drags on. The thrill
of either playing or watching the game is taken over by yawns, even
brief naps too. Perhaps patience and boredom are essentials in the
cricket regime.
Now, let us compare it with the strenuous game of football. One ball
and that is it. Cheap and very much affordable. And all the players, 22
of them, are involved together in the vitality of the game. They are
running, jumping, hitting, and bouncing in an action-packed and
meditative focus on the ball. Full value for both the players and
spectators.
The downgrading of cricket from its elite status will help the game
of football to cover more ground involving every economic class of
youths for their much-needed physical activities.
In Britain after all, where the game originated and exported to its
colonial domains, cricket is gradually receding in popularity. It is
being replaced by the more lucrative sport of football.
It is about time to end the cricket hype. It has gone too far. And let the football kick in.
By Promod Puri
promodpuri.com
