Hitting balls with a wooden bat can cause immediate death and kicking balls with feet can cause immediate humiliation.
Does the first sentence of this post indicate that Football is a better sport than Cricket? Safer maybe..but is it better? My view is that no particular sport is better than any other. Every sport has got its own essence, rules, fans and Tiger Woods (a player who gets caught in sex scandals). It is absolutely fabulous to support the sport you like, but it is also important not to disrespect the sport which others like. And I am not talking of the games you LIKE on Facebook.
So as the FIFA Football World Cup approaches I have started observing new movement in the Indian Football Fan communities . I will give you a point wise list of my observations of typical Indian Football fans, exactly like how I used to answer papers in my school (hence I am expecting to fail again).
Category 1: This category of Indian Football fans include those who proudly claim to be regular followers of the sport. Ask them which was the last time the Indian Football team played and they will have no clue. Ask them what is the FIFA world ranking of the Indian Football team and they will again have no clue. But for them, Football is so cool! (BTW India is ranked 132nd in the world.)
Category 2: This category includes the DIE HARD Fans! But wait..they are not the die hard fans of the Indian Football team. They are die hard fans of foreign club teams and occasionally of other foreign national teams. The same foreign teams who don't give a shit if stupid Indian boys are waiting to slit their wrists if they lose.
Category 3: This category is full of certified ch****yas. They claim to be football fans only because they think it will make them look cool and will help them in getting girls. They will tell you that they support Manchester United and Chelsea (because those are only two team names they are aware of). These guys are originally cricket fans. They will follow Sachin Tendulkar on Twitter, they will hide and weep when India gets kicked out of the T20 world cup, but they will always say that Cricket is oh so cheap! and it is seen and supported by every Tom, Dick and Harry. (Please don't pay undue attention to the second name in my "Tom, Dick and Harry" example.)
Category 4: This is the category of Football fans whom I respect and admire. They are passionate about the game and for a change they also follow the Indian national team and the domestic club teams. They also respect cricket and support the Indian cricket team. Four of my friends who belong to this category are Varun Shetty, Rohanth Thota, Parag Nargolkar and Jaywant Pathak.
And finally to those who say that Cricket sucks and they watch Football because the Indian cricket team didn't even make it to the semis of the T20 World Cup... I would like to remind that the Indian Football team "didn't even qualify" for the Football World Cup. So going by their own logic they shouldn't be watching Football as well.
Honestly, I don't give a shit as to who wins the Football World Cup, as long as India doesn't feature in the tournament.
