I am a football fan, a devoted supporter of the club manchester united and a bigger supporter for football in India. As such for readers who like to read about cricket's glory, this is rather a disheartened football fan's viewpoints regarding the choices we are forced to have by the sports channels available in India and the horrifying pull of cricket over football in India.
Last weekend 24th and 25th of september 2011, huge draw for us football fanatics as always because its the only time of the week we get to see live football telecast from across the distant continents of Europe. But it seems the huge disappointment had to show its ugly face someday and somehow, Champions league 20-20!! Now what i dont understand is nokia and BCCI spending huge sum of money on creating this tournament, why couldnt they come up with some other synonym ?? Did they HAVE to name it after the prestigious UEFA champions league tournament which is a competition involving the best ever football clubs and players in europe who are known by their first name in every household worldwide..??!! seriously, mr. KHAN (Sharukh khan) who is what is deciphered from his biography, a football fan or more of a hockey fan himself, why does he associate himself with an already overdosed pill(CRICKET) fed across the nation,i.e, India.
I'd rather appreciate him if he did really inspire the women's hockey team in real life to win the world cup of hockey, or even go and associate his brand with the Indian men hockey team itself. Point to be noted KKR team budget(earnings and spending all taken into consideration) would be able to supplement Indian hockey team both men and women for at least till the next world cup of hockey, 2014.
All this just reminds us of the pull the glitter of cricket has, mind you, not every country plays cricket, but still the money it brings to those associated with it.....makes our mind go bonkers!!
Cricket is such a sport that even if India or an Indian club wins or lose...its going to remain in the news somewhere. Football not so much, you might see a short interview clip of Baichung Bhutia, now soon to be replaced by the face of Sunil Chettri, but after that nobody asks about them. Even if football players in India perform badly on pitch which usually wouldn't be noticed by the eyes more comfortable with watching a red leather ball or white kookabura, nobody (specially news media) would blame them for partying too much or endorsing too many products. Its because maybe they really cant afford it with comparison to the amount their cricketing brothers are offered and thus not much in the limelight.
I am sorry to say that of all the cricketing teams I find Indian team players to somehow grow a pot belly or chubby cheeks as their pay increases, you wouldn't find that amongst the other nation top cricketers. Footballers be it Indian or Spanish(big gap in skills and ranking) cant ever grow pot belly or chubby cheeks during their playing career because it is directly related to their performance and pay!!
Now let us finally devote some time to the main issue of ESPN STAR SPORTS in India robbing their clients off the only opportunity to escape from the trivialities of the overdosed pill of CRICKET be it 20-20 or 100-100(whatever!!!) Even when there is a star cricket a channel dedicated only to cricket 24x7 and 365 days of a year, the broadcasters heeded it necessary to pull off the live telecast of Football and replace it with mumbai indians vs some team from trinidad & tobago. I was glad that they did show at least 2 football matches, both games involving the manchester teams. But they postponed the rest, because Indians are still hungry for cricket, even after winning the world cup and even after being completely beaten by the England team in the recent tour (note: huge difference but still in news). I guess its always about the money, revenue generation is the primary objective of every organization, be it BCCI, ESPN STAR SPORTS, or whatever!! Sir Alex Ferguson recently quoted how the television or media broadcasters control the fixtures, but here the broadcasters control the viewers because in India revenue generation primarily comes from cricket and not football. I guess a most basic solution by ESPN STAR SPORTS would be to devote a newly created channel for only 20-20, because 20-20 is going to be the new phenomenon according to latest studies right??!!
Conclusion is that TV or Sports Broadcasters theme is universally the same: Show me the money!!
Last weekend 24th and 25th of september 2011, huge draw for us football fanatics as always because its the only time of the week we get to see live football telecast from across the distant continents of Europe. But it seems the huge disappointment had to show its ugly face someday and somehow, Champions league 20-20!! Now what i dont understand is nokia and BCCI spending huge sum of money on creating this tournament, why couldnt they come up with some other synonym ?? Did they HAVE to name it after the prestigious UEFA champions league tournament which is a competition involving the best ever football clubs and players in europe who are known by their first name in every household worldwide..??!! seriously, mr. KHAN (Sharukh khan) who is what is deciphered from his biography, a football fan or more of a hockey fan himself, why does he associate himself with an already overdosed pill(CRICKET) fed across the nation,i.e, India.
I'd rather appreciate him if he did really inspire the women's hockey team in real life to win the world cup of hockey, or even go and associate his brand with the Indian men hockey team itself. Point to be noted KKR team budget(earnings and spending all taken into consideration) would be able to supplement Indian hockey team both men and women for at least till the next world cup of hockey, 2014.
All this just reminds us of the pull the glitter of cricket has, mind you, not every country plays cricket, but still the money it brings to those associated with it.....makes our mind go bonkers!!
Cricket is such a sport that even if India or an Indian club wins or lose...its going to remain in the news somewhere. Football not so much, you might see a short interview clip of Baichung Bhutia, now soon to be replaced by the face of Sunil Chettri, but after that nobody asks about them. Even if football players in India perform badly on pitch which usually wouldn't be noticed by the eyes more comfortable with watching a red leather ball or white kookabura, nobody (specially news media) would blame them for partying too much or endorsing too many products. Its because maybe they really cant afford it with comparison to the amount their cricketing brothers are offered and thus not much in the limelight.
I am sorry to say that of all the cricketing teams I find Indian team players to somehow grow a pot belly or chubby cheeks as their pay increases, you wouldn't find that amongst the other nation top cricketers. Footballers be it Indian or Spanish(big gap in skills and ranking) cant ever grow pot belly or chubby cheeks during their playing career because it is directly related to their performance and pay!!
Now let us finally devote some time to the main issue of ESPN STAR SPORTS in India robbing their clients off the only opportunity to escape from the trivialities of the overdosed pill of CRICKET be it 20-20 or 100-100(whatever!!!) Even when there is a star cricket a channel dedicated only to cricket 24x7 and 365 days of a year, the broadcasters heeded it necessary to pull off the live telecast of Football and replace it with mumbai indians vs some team from trinidad & tobago. I was glad that they did show at least 2 football matches, both games involving the manchester teams. But they postponed the rest, because Indians are still hungry for cricket, even after winning the world cup and even after being completely beaten by the England team in the recent tour (note: huge difference but still in news). I guess its always about the money, revenue generation is the primary objective of every organization, be it BCCI, ESPN STAR SPORTS, or whatever!! Sir Alex Ferguson recently quoted how the television or media broadcasters control the fixtures, but here the broadcasters control the viewers because in India revenue generation primarily comes from cricket and not football. I guess a most basic solution by ESPN STAR SPORTS would be to devote a newly created channel for only 20-20, because 20-20 is going to be the new phenomenon according to latest studies right??!!
Conclusion is that TV or Sports Broadcasters theme is universally the same: Show me the money!!
