cricket

cricketIn a country where cricket is so ingrained in the social fabric that it dwarfs every other sport and most other topics of conversation, Aayushman Chaturvedi made a decision that was almost unthinkable for his parents.He chose football.And if the mushrooming number of local academies emerging are any indication, Chaturvedi is not the only the Indian schoolboy who dreams of playing football in Europe rather than trying to break into the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League. Even former India footballer Anadi Barua, who runs a bustling academy on the outskirts of New Delhi, is surprised by the recent trend.'


It is amazing to see the craze, focus and ambition of youngsters,'' Barua said. ''I am surprised to see that parents are so happy to see their kids play football and not cricket.''Football in India lacks glamor and money compared with cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are celebrities across this country of almost 1.2 billion people and have become multimillionaires through cricket.Leading cricket players can earn $1 million for a six-week season in the IPL - on top of their national or provincial contracts, match fees and endorsements - while only the very top players in football's long-winding I-League can make anywhere near $100,000 per season. Little wonder there's millions of cricket players around the country and the number of footballers can be measured in the thousands.As the IPL cricket competition continues to expand and splurge money to enhance its appeal, two major football clubs that were part of the I-League - Mahindras and JCT - have folded in the last year.Such was the disparity in 2009 that the Board of Control for Cricket in India felt obliged to give the All India Football Federation a $5 million grant to help keep it afloat.Yet despite the yawning wealth divide, football remains popular - a Nielsen global online survey last year indicated


47 percent of Indians claimed to be football fans.''To translate love for the game into prospects, it is important to give exposure to young players. To watch European league matches on the television is one thing and playing the game altogether different,'' Barua said.India won gold medals in football at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and also finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But the standard of the game slipped due to lack of infrastructure and bad administration.Things started changing in the new Millennium. India qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup by winning a competition for second-tier nations, and is involved in home-and-away matches against United Arab Emirates over the next week in the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.

cricket