Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (In the world, football is more popular than cricket) that was published in Newsband

In the world, football is more popular than cricket

Cricket is a gentleman’s game but it doesn’t have as much global reach as football does.

India is a cricket crazy country. Nonetheless, India was a very good football playing country in the 50s and 60s. We were the Asian champions but unfortunately there has been a decline in Indian football in the last three to four decades.

This is one sport played by every country on this planet. But cricket is played by only few countries in the world. We are indeed a great cricketing country and we are high among the ranking in just 10 cricket playing nations. But that doesn’t clearly make us great among the number of countries,

Praful Patel, the president of The All India Football Federation (AIFF), announced the opening of the AIFF Regional Academy in Navi Mumbai. This is a great news. There is a quandary before the AIFF as to whether build the game first or wait for the money to flow in given that the two are interconnected. It is a long haul. It is like a chicken and egg situation. What comes first? Build the game, the money will flow. But if you want to build the game you have to have the money. And before you build the game, the money doesn’t come. Cricket has all the money in the world; other sports don’t have that much money.

The current emphasis is to develop the football sport in India and also bid for the under 17 World Cup which would in turn enable getting important infrastructure for the country. The AIFF along with the Dutch government, Orange Sports Forum and Walnut Sports Media have entered into an agreement to provide expertise to develop the game.

In 2017, India is likely to host the under 17 World Cup; this is something which India is aspiring for. India needs to set a goal and if Indians don’t set a goal, they won’t achieve anything. It is an ambitious bid before the FIFA Congress in Budapest around the third week of this month. Unless and until India doesn’t have a strong youth development programme in place, Indians will not have the bid or even do justice to the bid even if it comes through.

The five-year target has been designed to create a base for the grassroot footballers and AIFF has identified the stadiums which will host the event. In five years AIFF has to set a goal and within five years it will be able to have the infrastructure in place and it has identified 5-6 venues. AIFF has the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi, the Salt Lake Stadium and the stadium in Goa which would be ready and also Balewadi in Pune.

So that’s a great news for football lovers of India. Let’s hope that Football will attain as much popularity as Cricket has in our country.