Cricket v/s football - What’s your preference?

Cricket v/s football – What’s your preference?

Introduction:

While football is the game for everyone across the globe, we Indians would always stick to our ardent craze for cricket. Though, in the past few years we have also been showing inkling of preference for football, nothing beats the fan following to cricket.

“Come on! India, let’s football” was the ringing tune last year, exposing to the world a good population of India who have a diehard craze for football too.

Amid all the adrenaline rush that audience experience while cheering for their team against another country, say our very favorite neighbor, there is somewhere a small but powerful proportion of people who would switch to football any day once India gets into the international league. Lesser support to football over cricket could perhaps be the reason why we may be experiencing a deficit of excellent players in this sport from India.

Cricket:

1. The team factor: The very reason why cricket must have gained popularity in earlier days could have been our own team playing vigorously well and making us proud. Right from Kapil Dev’s extraordinary cricket to the present finesse of MS Dhoni, our team never let us down. There is an incomparable pride in seeing them win, our tricolor flying high in other countries and the entire world standing to attention when our national anthem plays. No matter how much someone would support Liverpool, it can never compare to the kind of proud feeling one gets when Team India wins a cup.

2. Better disciplined: Cricketers are always better disciplined than footballers. They don’t fake injuries only to divert attention. They don’t throw toys out of crib like footballers rolling on ground. Our cricketers are always the fine gentlemen with heads held high and ready to accept whatever comes their way. They don’t shed tears at every occasion just to make audience go ‘awww’ and behave like over-grown kids, neither do they pick brawls like adolescent in need of proper guidance.

3. Courtesy at its best: Isn’t it exquisite to watch players congratulating the opposite team for their win? Can football ever come close to the way Virat Kohli praised Pakistani Bowler Amir after the recent match? No? I thought so. While on the other side we see footballers angry and ready to brawl if given a chance. There are moments when players lose their calm but it doesn’t take the entire management to handle the situation like it happened with Wayne Rooney.

4. Dressed to impress: Cricketers are far better dressed than footballers who look to have just gotten out of bed and put on their overused tee and shorts and decided to wear their running shoes for a change. One look at a cricketer in his elegant kit is enough to make one rise and swell with pride. With the helmet and pad, and his weapon of attack, the players look like one ready to battle soldier. Lionel Messi might make the fans swoon with attraction but for a cricket fan, Brett Lee still wins the race and will never be a thing of the past no matter what.

5. Variations: Cricket is far more interesting with so many ways in which one could bat or ball. There are so many rules and guidelines which only make the game more strategic and fun. There are so many things that can happen in the last over while I would personally say that football is all about a bunch of boys running after a ball trying to get it across a net. It just ceases to impress me.

Football:

1. The universal game: Cricket is the game of British. Even to this day only those nations that were once ruled by British play the game of cricket. Cricket was introduced by British when they saw uprising and revolt in the nations where they ruled. That answers why Germans and Chinese never played cricket. However, football is cherished everywhere around the world. Not a single nation can deny playing it or lacking fans for this game.

2. More thrill and excitement: In the short duration of time that football takes, there is far more thrill and excitement than cricket which is usually longer and not as exciting all the time, especially if your own team isn’t playing on that day. With football, it is exactly the opposite. No matter which team you hail for, each game session will always hold its own thrill for an ardent football fan.

3. Fittest players: While cricket is a very forgiving game where players need not be exceptionally fit and well-built, football requires rigorous training and a well maintained physique in order to be a well accomplished player. They are more active and have to keep running around the whole time which requires far more stamina and speed. There is not much running around required for cricket where players simply have to hold their positions and wait for their turns to run after the ball. Football requires so much from each player at the same time. They have to be defending, sliding and tackling and trying to score all the same time.

4. The purist game: Cricket is not much of a pure game than the advertisement burlesque that it has become, let’s face it. Football is a purist game. There is a reason why it is called the joga bonito or the game beautiful game. There is no stopping the game in between even if it rains, snows or storms. Cricket comes to a stop as soon as it starts showering, disappointing audience gathered at the stadium to a great extent.

5. The rising academies: All bigger cities in India have opened academies by Manchester unites, Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal. With all these investments running high, there are big hopes that soon we will be having our very own Messi evolving from India. The football leagues have been supported and bought by celebrities and sports personalities alike. It just shows the kind of support football is garnering amid youngsters and adults too.

Conclusion:

There seems to be no conclusion to the debate of which is a better sport between cricket and football. Each of them appeals people differently. Some might prefer watching or playing cricket for its strategies while some might like football for the adrenaline rush that accompanies.

Players of both the games require specific skills and trainings. They are both very accomplished in their fields. They have fame and equally enthusiastic fan following. They might differ largely but at the end of the day, they have their own share of limelight and popularity in every country.

While football might not be all that appealing to larger audience in India, it is to be noted that it is fast gaining momentum with time. It won’t be long until we could be finding the sport as appealing as cricket is today, though there is no replacing one with the other.