In less than a week, the event that diehard fans have been eagerly awaiting is going to begin. It’s bound to be exciting – two top 10 teams taking each other on from the outset. Yup, there’s no doubt the England-Sri Lanka Test match at Lord’s, starting June 12, is going to set the sporting world alight.
Wait, you didn’t know it was happening? Don’t blame you, to be honest. The cricketing world is a tiny microcosm, just about 10 countries, and even these 10 will be firmly focused on another little sporting event that begins on June 12: the football World Cup (or, in tedious officialese, the 2014 FIFA World Cup™).
Let’s face it, for the next six weeks or so, every other sport – and for some people everything else in life – is going to have to take a back seat. This is the World Cup, a bigger battle than NaMo versus RaGa, though there is less likelihood of lopsided results. And it beats anything that cricket can offer.
Why, you ask? Here's a few reasons to begin with.
1. The beautiful Game
Some sports feel the need to add a touch of classism to distinguish themselves – all-white uniforms, baggy hats, the distinction of playing the “gentleman’s game”. Yet the greatest game of all can be played with a crushed Pepsi can if a ball isn’t handy, and a t-shirt left on the ground to mark the goal. And it will still be known as the beautiful game, because, well, you can do this.
2. 90 minutes (Plus extra time. Plus penalties)
There’s nothing quite like sitting down with a beer at the top of the innings to watch a ferocious Mitchell Johnson try to knock over the stumps or the batsman, whichever comes first. Unfortunately you and I probably have some work to do and can’t quite dedicate the next eight hours/five days of our lives to watching terrified batsmen using the willow as a shield. As much fun as it may be to read minute-by-minute updates in your office, reading about the action rather than watching it is like smelling delicious food without getting to eat it. Football, meanwhile, is 90 minutes not counting halftime or extra time. It's fun without taking forever.
But what about the Indian Premier League, you say? We’d like to point out that the football World Cup lets you watch an entire game without hearing Harsha Bhogle try to emulate Danny Morrisson’s near-demented enthusiasm about DLF Maximums.
3. We are the champions (and we are too)
This might seem a no-brainer, but football’s beauty lies in its simplicity. They have a World Cup, and whoever wins it is the global champion for the next four years.
Cricket, meanwhile, has a quadrennial One-Day International World Cup, an annual International Cricket Council Test Championship, an approximately biennial ICC Champions Trophy and a whenever-they-feel-like-it World Twenty20 tournament. And each one has a winner.
You’d think it is cricket that is played by almost every nation on earth and football that is played by a bunch of former British colonies.
4. Location, location, location
Here’s the thing about having very few teams play an international sport: you don’t get to go anywhere, or even sit at home and discover new places on TV, since the tournament has to be held in a country where people actually care about it. Fortunately, quite a few people care about football, so while this edition of the Cup is happening in familiar Brazil, the next one will be hosted by Russia and the one after that in Qatar. So many more chances to discover a local variant of the vuvuzela.
5. Crazy timings
Ever noticed how quiet your city is at 3.30 am? Well, you’re about to find out, what with a whole bunch of matches kicking off at that unholy hour. The more the Board of Council for Cricket in India comes to dominate cricket, the more timings in that sport will be exclusively geared for audiences in this country – leaving you without the chance to play the part of the fanatical supporter who ignores her work and social life to wake up in time to hear the inane pre-game commentary, even if it begins at 3 in the morning.
6. Saucier shenanigans
The BCCI’s dominance also means that there is much less of interest in the corruption and fixing that follows sporting organisations like that little lamb that followed Mary. Never mind the attempts to get Pakistani fast bowlers to occasionally step over the crease. Football has proper scandals, involving headbutts, Brazilian favela gangs, crazy European racists, flaming Vespas flying from the stands, sex, money and often both sex and money. Meanwhile, the most interesting thing to happen in a cricket World Cup final was the umpires getting some complex rules wrong.
7. Cinderella stories
Three of the last four cricket World Cups were won by Australia. The other one went to the economic home of the sport, India.
The football World Cup has gone to four different teams in the last four editions and even if you argue that they are all traditional powerhouses (barring the disappointing-until-last-time Spain), the fact that there are 32 teams competing means there are bound to be underdog upsets. Football is also more dependent on single, startling moments, in that one mistake can leave a huge favourite fuming and a little upstart celebrating. Cinderella upsets in cricket, like the rare success of Ireland in the 2007 cricket World Cup, are few and far between.
8. Brought to you by
You get an advertisement around every four or so minutes in cricket, which is the length of the average over. When exciting things happen – like, say, a wicket – the commercial breaks suddenly get even longer. Often you don’t get to see the first or last ball of the over fully because of ads. And now with commercials on the field and in the DLF maximum commentary, the gentleman’s game appears to have turned into a consumerist carnival.
Meanwhile, once the ball has been kicked-off in football, you’re guaranteed 45 minutes of uninterrupted action. Thankfully, we haven’t gotten to the stage where corner kicks are sponsored by Kurkure.
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Wait, you didn’t know it was happening? Don’t blame you, to be honest. The cricketing world is a tiny microcosm, just about 10 countries, and even these 10 will be firmly focused on another little sporting event that begins on June 12: the football World Cup (or, in tedious officialese, the 2014 FIFA World Cup™).
Let’s face it, for the next six weeks or so, every other sport – and for some people everything else in life – is going to have to take a back seat. This is the World Cup, a bigger battle than NaMo versus RaGa, though there is less likelihood of lopsided results. And it beats anything that cricket can offer.
Why, you ask? Here's a few reasons to begin with.
1. The beautiful Game
Some sports feel the need to add a touch of classism to distinguish themselves – all-white uniforms, baggy hats, the distinction of playing the “gentleman’s game”. Yet the greatest game of all can be played with a crushed Pepsi can if a ball isn’t handy, and a t-shirt left on the ground to mark the goal. And it will still be known as the beautiful game, because, well, you can do this.
2. 90 minutes (Plus extra time. Plus penalties)
There’s nothing quite like sitting down with a beer at the top of the innings to watch a ferocious Mitchell Johnson try to knock over the stumps or the batsman, whichever comes first. Unfortunately you and I probably have some work to do and can’t quite dedicate the next eight hours/five days of our lives to watching terrified batsmen using the willow as a shield. As much fun as it may be to read minute-by-minute updates in your office, reading about the action rather than watching it is like smelling delicious food without getting to eat it. Football, meanwhile, is 90 minutes not counting halftime or extra time. It's fun without taking forever.
But what about the Indian Premier League, you say? We’d like to point out that the football World Cup lets you watch an entire game without hearing Harsha Bhogle try to emulate Danny Morrisson’s near-demented enthusiasm about DLF Maximums.
3. We are the champions (and we are too)
This might seem a no-brainer, but football’s beauty lies in its simplicity. They have a World Cup, and whoever wins it is the global champion for the next four years.
Cricket, meanwhile, has a quadrennial One-Day International World Cup, an annual International Cricket Council Test Championship, an approximately biennial ICC Champions Trophy and a whenever-they-feel-like-it World Twenty20 tournament. And each one has a winner.
You’d think it is cricket that is played by almost every nation on earth and football that is played by a bunch of former British colonies.
4. Location, location, location
Here’s the thing about having very few teams play an international sport: you don’t get to go anywhere, or even sit at home and discover new places on TV, since the tournament has to be held in a country where people actually care about it. Fortunately, quite a few people care about football, so while this edition of the Cup is happening in familiar Brazil, the next one will be hosted by Russia and the one after that in Qatar. So many more chances to discover a local variant of the vuvuzela.
5. Crazy timings
Ever noticed how quiet your city is at 3.30 am? Well, you’re about to find out, what with a whole bunch of matches kicking off at that unholy hour. The more the Board of Council for Cricket in India comes to dominate cricket, the more timings in that sport will be exclusively geared for audiences in this country – leaving you without the chance to play the part of the fanatical supporter who ignores her work and social life to wake up in time to hear the inane pre-game commentary, even if it begins at 3 in the morning.
6. Saucier shenanigans
The BCCI’s dominance also means that there is much less of interest in the corruption and fixing that follows sporting organisations like that little lamb that followed Mary. Never mind the attempts to get Pakistani fast bowlers to occasionally step over the crease. Football has proper scandals, involving headbutts, Brazilian favela gangs, crazy European racists, flaming Vespas flying from the stands, sex, money and often both sex and money. Meanwhile, the most interesting thing to happen in a cricket World Cup final was the umpires getting some complex rules wrong.
7. Cinderella stories
Three of the last four cricket World Cups were won by Australia. The other one went to the economic home of the sport, India.
The football World Cup has gone to four different teams in the last four editions and even if you argue that they are all traditional powerhouses (barring the disappointing-until-last-time Spain), the fact that there are 32 teams competing means there are bound to be underdog upsets. Football is also more dependent on single, startling moments, in that one mistake can leave a huge favourite fuming and a little upstart celebrating. Cinderella upsets in cricket, like the rare success of Ireland in the 2007 cricket World Cup, are few and far between.
8. Brought to you by
You get an advertisement around every four or so minutes in cricket, which is the length of the average over. When exciting things happen – like, say, a wicket – the commercial breaks suddenly get even longer. Often you don’t get to see the first or last ball of the over fully because of ads. And now with commercials on the field and in the DLF maximum commentary, the gentleman’s game appears to have turned into a consumerist carnival.
Meanwhile, once the ball has been kicked-off in football, you’re guaranteed 45 minutes of uninterrupted action. Thankfully, we haven’t gotten to the stage where corner kicks are sponsored by Kurkure.