Ever since my childhood, I remember my family being a huge cricket fan. Ofcourse except my dad -who can watch any sport under the sun irrespective of the countries played and now, with this numerous sports channels and leagues in place, he is literally having a sports fest in his retirement life. Infact, his latest passion in sports is to buy my niece FIFA football every four years and make her to have a collection. Well, hope one day my niece captains Indian women’s football team!
Though my dad’s behavior on watching sports is infectious, unlike him, my mom is a loyal cricket fan. She not only watches all formats but also understands test cricket concept. That’s something I am unable to get till date….phew!! But these days to my surprise, I have seen her watching football matches more than me. It is unusual to see her talk about late night matches as soon as I get up in the morning. She is like the first update I can get on FIFA happening. Pretty soon it prompted me to ask her as to what is making her watch football so interestingly and here is what she said- “ these matches are short and sweet and to be played with so much intelligence”
Yep, she said it all! It’s nothing but a cumulative intelligence of eleven people. For instance- in cricket, at a time tricks are done either by the batsman or the bowler or the captain. But here, the entire eleven got to be collectively doing the magic almost constantly! It is so amazing to see them all work together towards a ‘common goal’ with so much commitment. By and by, there are so many qualities that these players need to possess- like, first and foremost they should be patriotic, should be excellent team players, should be able to coordinate & communicate well, should be extremely confident, should be fearless, should be knack-full, should have tough legs, should take quick decisions, should be innovative on their strategies, and to some extent should even have the sixth sense etc., Oops, I almost forgot one more important criteria…they should compulsorily have handsome looks..duh:)
Overall everything is so classy & stylish about this game- like the football jersey’s, the discipline in the way games are conducted, the dignity of referees, the gracefulness of the coaches, and how can I let go K’nann’s celebration mix!! It gets me the goose bumps every time I hear it…wow... music speaks it all!! Ok… now back to football;). It even offers one of the main behavioural skills which is indeed by giving an opportunity to have ‘fair play’ with their opponents! Gosh, sounds like a complete corporate game to me though. I think the companies should limit the cost on classroom trainings for enhancing soft skills and let their employees just play football. Let’s face it- It certainly helps in skill building, its fun and moreover can help in avoiding their employees building tragic body figures!!
Finally, coming to the ‘one & only’ football wish, I recently got to hear from our media friends about coca-cola also having sponsored under-16 Indian football team which is a great thing to do supporting youngsters!! When we can manage to play Hockey, I think we can manage football too.
I wish- I see India one day qualified in final 32 FIFA teams and then, we all Indians proudly travel across to just ‘cheer them’ in such a ‘passionate intelligent game’!!
Signing off for now,
Achu
2 comments:
I totally! completely!! whole-heartedly agree to your proposition of companies letting their employees play soccer instead of punishing their employees by enrolling them to those boring soft-skills training workshops.. :)
P.S. Even you may take part in the games.. God willing, you may also start appreciating the 'whole different ball game'. :P
Anand- When an opportunity strikes, am definitely gonna try & understand!!:)
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