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For someone with no interest in football, the past month has been a revelation. From the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to the last sobbing image of Iker Casillas, the captain of the Spanish team, which claimed the crown, it has been an exhilarating month of sports viewing. There used to be a time when I almost despised football. Worse, I saw it as a form of rabid nationalism and commodification of patriotism, a kind of tribal, boozy sport with an immense commercial opportunity. But my whole thinking
has changed during the last month when the quadrennial FIFA World Cup
exploded on us. I can’t say I am an expert after 30 days of ringside
viewing, but perhaps a tad better than a friend who innocently asked on
the day of the finals whether " Saraddona " was playing.
Football has been everywhere, resulting in impressive ratings (FIFA
claims 700 million watched the finals), and creating a sense of
community spirit. ESPN has been complicit in creating the hype, and
conquering a nation which eats, breathes and lives cricket.
Today, ask a card carrying member of the Couch Potato Club, and chances are they will be able identify a Messi from a Rooney, and a Robben from an Iniesta, thanks to ESPN Starsports’ splendid coverage. Helping the viewer jump into the mood has been the fabulous commentary of ace broadcaster Martin Tyler. The cadence of his language has been so endearing, almost poetic. "The play is as yet intriguing, not inspirational." "He doesn’t want to die without winning a World Cup." And as the ball reaches the goal area, suddenly the dulcet-toned Tyler will shout GOAAALL! And there you are left clutching at neigbouring elbows and jumping up and down, shouting with glee. Even those not part of an obsessive football-watching TV group knew of Paul, the eight-armed oracle, who, by the way, has now retired from his crystal balling days, and his cent per cent success in predicting results. Suddenly stories about Paul and his accuracy were everywhere, even forming parts of breaking news in news channels. Of course, not to be outdone, our desi fortune tellers were also put on prime time news, with CNN-IBN getting a bird to pick the wining card. Clearly, if one can’t fight the madness, one should embrace it. In between there were some other distractions. For instance, last fortnight with Wimbledon finals, it was a week of tough TV choices. On the one hand, there were the Wimbledon finals between Serena Williams and Vera Zvonareva, and then on the other channel there was the clash between the Argentineans and the Germans. With the Germans happily thrashing the Argentinean dream team, it was hard to take your eyes off the face-off and turn to Wimbledon, which this year seemed to be full of names that seemed to end with "ovas." It is really unfair. One has barely got one’s tongue around saying Maria Sharapova and Anna Kurnikova fluently, now there is a whole new crop of "ovas" mushrooming all "ova" the place (Sorry, couldn’t resist). There was Tsvetana Pironkova, who coolly wiped out Venus Williams, and then there was the more controlled Zvonareva — yes, I know, technically she is not an "ova" but, still, she sounds like one. While it was great that sadda puttar Leander Paes won his 12th Grand Slam title, it was disheartening to see that there was no Indian VIP clapping in the audience, urging him on. Neither was there anyone when badminton queen Saina Nehwal aced last fortnight’s international tournament. Did you see German Chancellor Angela Merkel bouncing up and down, trying hard not show all her pearly whites as the Germans romped home with a big victory? And then, in the finals on Sunday, the Queen of Spain tried hard not to look too jubilant but failed miserably. What is it with our Indian VIPs? As it is, our international sports victories are few. Given our size, wouldn’t it be nice to see some of them cheering our non-cricketing sports stars when they reach the finals? While on the topic of sports, and only
a few months left for the Commonwealth Games, it is refreshing to see
some hard-hitting investigative reports being aired on how prepared
Delhi actually is for the October games.
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