Most of my son’s classmates find greater pleasure in watching Thierry Henry, a Frenchman who captains a London club, Arsenal, than in watching Rahul Dravid turn out for India. The boys in his class who aren’t fixated on Arsenal are obsessed with Manchester United and someone called Rooney who looks worryingly like an Eighties model skinhead. I could be wrong, my sample could be too small, but I think we’re seeing a shift in the sporting culture of metropolitan Indian schoolboys of a particular class. They’re seceding from international cricket and offering their enthusiasm and loyalty to English league football.

Before you go off thinking that my son’s school is some deracinated, air-conditioned NRI heaven, let me assure you that it’s not. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya is an austere, emphatically desi school, with a great cricket tradition. It has produced Indian internationals (Ajay Jadeja, Murali Karthik) and it has one of the most powerful cricket teams amongst Delhi’s schools. Lots of sensible kids in the school aspire to play competitive cricket. So far, so good. But ask any parent with a boy in middle-school and he’ll tell you the same thing: cricket’s reasonably popular, but it isn’t cool.

No, watching Arsenal play Chelsea with your friends is cool. Watching Arsenal play Chelsea wearing the red, obscenely priced Arsenal jersey, is cooler. To fold yourself into Arsenal’s global fan base with a casual ‘we’ is coolest of all, because that’s the very acme of cosmopolitan belonging.

That ‘we’ wouldn’t have been possible till a few years ago, before Star/ESPN began telecasting fixtures live. Recorded matches can seem second-hand because others have watched/used them already. With live telecasts beamed in by satellite, a schoolboy in Delhi can own the action of the match, its suspense, its exhilaration, its heartbreak, in the same way as someone in South Harrow can, because both of them see it happen in real time. Paradoxically, supporting league football is easy because it doesn’t involve treason. It’s not England you’re supporting at football where once you supported India at cricket. No, in cheering for Arsenal you’re supporting a club side whose captain is French, and whose players are as likely to come from Cote d’Ivoire as Camden Town.

And why is Arsenal more compelling than India? Two reasons. One, the Indian team isn’t successful enough at cricket to be glamorous. The last ten years of Australian dominance have left the other cricketing nations looking like pygmies squabbling for second place. Two, with the decline of the West Indies and the less than competitive presence of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, international cricket sometimes seems like a tawdry, post-colonial leftover, too small and tarnished a mirror to reflect the growing self-consequence of contemporary India’s globalizing elite. The extraordinary celebration of Bhaichung Bhutia, an Indian footballer who was recruited to play for a third division English club, is a forewarning of the enormous enthusiasm that’s likely to be stirred up if one or two Indian players manage to make their way into the upper reaches of a truly global league like the English Premiership.

I tell myself that even if my son’s class is representative of its kind in India’s great cities, we’re still talking about a small minority of Indian cricket’s viewership. As television-aided cricket reaches more deeply and widely into Indian society, as talent begins to be produced in provincial places (think of Virendra Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, and Mohammad Kaif), metropolitan towns like Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore and Madras become less important as nurseries of talent, and urban, middle-class, English-speaking children become a diminishing sliver of Indian cricket’s huge installed fan base.

But I’m not consoled. Our cricketing genes need to reproduce themselves. When our children defect, an unbroken sequence of cricketing generations is severed, a familial cricketing tradition, a silsila, becomes defunct. Less sentimentally, no Indian game can afford to lose the children of the haute salariat, the class of people who buy fridges and washing machines. Once upon a time Test cricket was one of the white goods that this class consumed reflexively: but for how much longer?

A longer version of this post published in The Telegraph, Kolkata, is available here

Arsenal, my boy, is more compelling than India because, in Rashid Latif's words: India are chokers. They can't play and savour any half-decent player they get. Kapil Dev's bowling action was like a chicken and he averaged 23 with the bat. Tendulkar can't play for his country just himself. India lost a World Cup match because of Gavaskar's scoring rate and still it was an unbroken Indian record. The only decent players ever for India have been: Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Khan, Agarkar, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel. If you stretch out, then Tendulkar in his first five years was good. This is India's extent. Out of a population short of only China, they have never gotten a fast bowler. Vegetarians.

The above story is too true. I am a professional living and working in Dubai and even here most kids in the 13 - 18 age group sport T shirts from a Premier league club and talk of Rooney, Ballack and Crouch and are totally into the English football scene. So am I to be honest after about 20 years of being a die hard cricket fan, supporting a successful Premier league team gives you a lot of guaranteed success that the Indian team sadly does not.

There was a time when i would even watch the less significant Zim v Bang contests with keen interest and felt was seeing a good player in the making when a saw a young boy by the name mohd ashraful bat. Yet these days if I had to choose between Real Madrid vs Barca and Ind vs Pak .... The choice is so much easier now. Football is a simple game. I had grown up at a time when the Laras and the sachins were making their mark in the game and ravaging bowling attacks all over the world. Yet It has not taken me more than 2 years to undersand why ronaldinho's first touch is so special ,why lionel messi is regarded so highly and why riquelme is considered amongst the best mid fielders in the game today.Although i have played no better than school cricket i still understand the joy of a searing cover drive hit on the rise that goes screaming all along to the ropes. Yet when arsenal pass the ball around and that man cesc fabregas threads the ball in so neatly for henry to kill with such charm you can only drop your jaw in amazement.... and i have never played any sort of football at any level.

This is a great, great disappointment. For myself, I have never changed my interests, having started following cricket at age 7. I don't care what sport "they" say I have to follow this week, I will always follow cricket anywhere, anytime. By the way, I am very interested to hear about audio coverage of cricket from all countries. Do India provide any internet radio coverage to the world?

As long as holy cows only are allowed to graze the cricket field, there will be a natural death of cricket in India. Sachin is the holiest cow and if it is sacrilege to say any thing about his palce in the nationalside , no matter how bad his continued performance on the field is. One century can keep him afloat for another ten years if not more. Appreciating genius and showing respect is one thing but idolatising one for eternity making him a permanent member of the team for ever is another.

Well, top European leagues are these days so much better than Cricket. Face it, When you have Watford facing Chelsea and Say Bangladesh v Australia you don't need to think much to decide which is a more even contest. Add to that the present day one day pitches where it is all about scoring 300 runs and who can belt the ball harder, the 8 hours(including lunch break) to complete a cricket match and the 1 hr 45 mins(including half time break) for football, the better competition(what would you prefer? Indian and Lankan batsmnen piling runs on predictably placid one day tracks or the premier league and champions league which offer less predictibility and more overall quality?), you have the clear winner. Cricket as a game is not one for the future it seems.

Mukul, the very same thing that you talk about is also happening in Pakistan. When I read your article it was a though you were describing my own school in Karachi! People do still play, but noone wants to be seen as too 'keen' on cricket. As you said, its popular but it isn't cool. And that's a shame.

the other reason Mr keshavan you would appreciate is this ..though i am saying only my story i.e speaking only for myself .and my circle of friends some of them after graduation got software IT jobs some are still looking for IT jobs but working very hard in call centre jobs :-)so they just cant keep themselves awake to watch slow cricket but ..we suddenly realise that cricket is an 8-9 hour game we can follow the game on website like cricinfo :-) but to watch every ball is just impossible ..sometimes even when at home cant watch cricket as it seems too slow ....when the great sachin is playing any left arm spinner !!!and there factor is this again this is my theory ..based on my observations with friends that my generation of indians who grew up in 90's TV was never a novelty so we have been watching india play but now with the decline of golden generation (yesterday not withstanding) we wonder with the golden generation we could not get out of mid table then what happens now ...with millions of dollars as revenue we are only mid table ..and our geneartion in offices are expected to achieve quality standards of global standards but cricket team with "8" team global reach cant even for a single day be the best with so much funding any day sania mirza with all the critiscm of her being the worst hype of indian sports is better atleast she plays in new york paris,beijing where the names dravid sachin does not ring a bell its just about time lalit modi woke up and smelt coffee before talking about some more millions

As an economy, India is on the move, up, up and up. But in terms of cricketing achievement it has little to show, despite the huge amounts of money (and time) spent on it. Generation Next, who are just smarter in their choices, prefer to watch a team that wins most of the time be it Arsenal or Australia. Indian cricket badly needs a few good victories. Right now.

Our friend from one of the earlier blogs, Mr Moiz, perhaps needs a history lesson and could do with slightly more refined analytical skills. Could it be because he is non-vegetarian? Using Rashid Latif as the touchpoint for making sweeping statements - maybe Mr Moiz needs to rethink his choice of role models.

Twenty 20 should be the answer to these kids who have shorter attention spans and who are addicted to high voltage action.
Tendulakar's and Lara's might come and go but the game would evolve to accomodate the interests of the consumers or the ultimate stakeholders - the viewers.

There was a period in tennis when the Williams shut out the rest and then when we have a Federer who plays like a dream.A Tiger Woods!!! A Schumacher at his best!!!Does it make these sports any less watchable.It doesn't mean the others are not trying.Man they rule.

But the day you have cricket being played on the beaches of Miami and Rio and the stadiums of Berlin and Shanghai will be the day when it has truly come of age.

Completely agree with this. Although I am in my mid-20s and witnessed the explosion of one-day cricket in the mid-90s as a teenager, even in my generation interest in cricket seems to be dwindling by the day. EPL and football in general seems to be the top choice but Formula 1 is not very far behind.I presume it has got a lot to do with the monotony of the one-day version. The audience for test cricket,has probably not declined and if at all increased slightly over the last decade or so. However, one-day cricket has lost its lure and is mostly superfluous and highly predictable. I belive 20-20 will usher in a new generation of instant cricket and probably win back the crowd one-day cricket has lost.

I completely agree with you Mr. Kesavan.

But please also remember that Football for 1 hour 45 minutes is so exhilarating that Cricket can never match that - and it actually did on "The Great Match" of Australia vs. South Africa and i felt it became boring to actually hear Mr. Tony Greig whose commentary is really fine - to keep saying thats a six a gazillion times!

Again - if you look at the future of cricket in this country of ours - what do we have for teh future - Nothing! There is not one truly exciting talent to watch for and I believe that we will be going through a similar phase of what West Indies are going through now (Though we could never emulate their previous phase!!!!!)

Football on the other hand is such a sublime and a fast game and the skill that players such as a Zidane, Henry and Figo had is simply unbeatable and truly enjoyable - and considering where we Indians are in the world in Football - there is no question of any patriotic pangs either!

When you start a blog it's your responsibility to ensure that the right degree of maturity and balance is maintianed.Mr.Moiz's comment is neither and besides being innacurate he is casting aspersions on the dietery preferences (again inaccurately) of an entire nation!

Generally, the comments by both Pakistani's and Indian's on each other's blogs, atleast, in cricket are constructive and positive even if there's criticism.

This comment as mentioned above, is downright abusive and painful for an Indian to read.

I suppose non vegetarian fast bowlers are a mirror of success: still under a doping cloud, pushing and finger pointing your coach and for the whole world to see! Wow!

As an adside Mr.Moiz I would like to let you know that an Indian who won a GLOBAL award in his category of BODY BUILDING was a VEGETARIAN.

"Mind over Matter" ?!

And I also do not agree with the blogger: "jab tak rahega samose mein alloo tab tak rahega India mein Cricket!!!!!"

Oops sorry a VEGETARIAN joke !?!?!

Nirbhay Singh

I really don't see why one can't be enthusiastic about both sports at the same time. I love cricket, football, tennis equally. Of course cricet takes precedence over everything.

The only game I can't understand is Baseball!

Cricket can be best preserved in highlighting its charm, it can't be compared with Football or any game which relies mostly on physical poweress.Its an old romantic's game with its moments of blood and guts.Lets not place it with such games,lets give it a new frame.At least the game is played with fervid passion and truthfulness in this country unlike one where passion gives way to pretentious statements,use of enhancing drugs and disgraceful acts(on and off the field).

Too many cricket games, nobody has time to spend the whole day for Cricket now. Would rather see the highlights. And with the test cricket forget it 5 days. Everybody is pressed for time, so this trend will be seen in the future. Even Golf, people watch only because of Tiger, if he doesn't play they don't even turn on the TV.

I live in a hostel; one (barely functioning TV) between 70 boys (at an average). Its an all INdia law school, so you can basically say that the students are probably representative of the middle-upper middle class of most parts of the country.
No football match (save the World Cup final) packs students in like a good cricket match. The Ashes, the South Africa v Aus match at Jo'Burg, WI v Aus in KL (where Jerome Taylor took the hattrick), was enthusiastically watched by no less than half the hostel packed into one room.
Of course EPL has its supporters (among our juniors mostly), but cricket is still alive. It just has more competition. Indian cricket could do with more competition, esp from football, since hockey is dead (though for entirely different reasons from what this blog suggests could happen to cricket)

Maybe 20-20 is the key to bring back the crowds. But I remember the last day of the last Ashes test and the wild cheering that broke out here when England saved the day, and think maybe just GOOD CRICKET is what we need. Not...England, or club-level Zimbabwe being thrashed again and again!

I started to become a huge cricket fan by watching the 1999 cricket world cup. That was when I was given access to cable tv by my parents and I made sure I did not waste the opportunity and watched every single live game. Test matches in Australia and Newzealand were fascinating. There were days when I would start watching cricket at 4.30 in the morning to watch the game played in Newzealand and end up finishing at 9.30 in the night with the game played in South Africa. Test matches played in countries with sporting wickets were fantastic. So were the ODI's. But then I watched a ODI series between India and West Indies played on Indian pitches in unknown grounds and that is when I started to become a Arsenal fan. I realised that my heroes were only on paper and I felt Viera was better than Sehwag in every respect.

If this the case, it is good. Isn't it? Atlast there is some other sport getting popular in India apart from Cricket which I feel is overdose. For information, I was also a obsessed cricket follower in my childhood days. But the decline of cricket standards as you have rightly put the reasons, I am happy that it is heading this way.

ya,its true that EPL,spanish league and continuous flow of their live coverage has diminished somewhat elite base of india.sadly so is to see the continuing trend as though i myself have watched cricket all over sacin's age and appreciated each and every knock ,am graually intending towards some sports need not be football (personally i favour lawn tennis than to football)but every other one which is not that much time consuming.i liked to watch hockey too,as it is faster than most of the sports but indias meteoric decline in the sports horizon has left no choice but to follow meagre sports which are very less distinguishable.i totally agree with kuppurao ,but its not the fault in some individuals only.the problem lies in the management itself and it starts right from the higher echleon as high as that of BCCI proffessionals.in another sports atleast you get to see some competition(barring the god federer and to some extent tiger woods)but in cricket its australia everywhere.real joy of any sports is not only the skills and crafts of some individuals but the win and loss of the nations and sentiments related to it.and repeated thrashing of indian cricketers from australia and another better teams has not done good at all.you can support anything only when it gets you output and this indian team has not done anything extra to give that.i ve watched indian greats fall at slightest of tough conditions.and most worrying thing is that they dont seem to work on their weaknesses but they wait for easier conditions to get some runs under their belt and show at the end of the year that their average is not that much bad either.and the problem here is also that though we are having the richest cricket board we dont have even 5 pitche of testing quality here in india.and they keep on doing so.and when some greg chappel wants to get the true cricket mindset to chokers he is thrashed .so its gloomy situation.and we cant see the same story all over the years so shift is towards another game...

Well - it could be worse. We could have been Pakistani or even English and had to support their cricket teams!

It might be for the best. The kind of fans who only support a team because it is winning are not true fans. Obsessing over one sport does not always benefit the country either. In Engaland football IS a religion to many people but what have England actually won in the last 40 YEARS? Nothing. They have not even reached a final....

.
set up an internal 20/20 cricket competition
bombay vikings vs. calcutta tigers
delhi dodos vs. haryana hippos
watch the crowds come flocking back

start a champions-league style competition
lahore lizards narrowly defeated by the unfancied upstart kathmandu wildfire in an amazing ACC Champions League final

wild celebrations in the streets of the nepalese capital. now hopefully the national side can do sell too..

cricket HAS to change and adapt

mukul, awsome analysis.
waiting for your book

Shan, I could help you with baseball... and to me, competitive test cricket is still the lord of all games...

It's all marketing..

Well the fact that boys of a particular class are enjoying football doesnt in any way indiacte that cricket is dying a death in India.It's just the net has spread wider and more and more kids are taing to sports in school and hence we see a nice interest in almost all the sports in indian school kids.If you analyse Indian cricket team in the last 15 years (since the advent of cable TV), you will find thatexdpet for Ganguly and Dravid, almost all other players have come from non-elitist schools.maybe the school which you son attends would have produced so many tennis stars,golfers, squash players and even swimmers but when it comes to hockey,football and cricket, its the lesser known schools who still rule the roost!And the interst shown by these kids in other sports has resulted in India slowly improving its performance in internation sport.As for some pakis abusing Indian players here, let me ask just a simple fact, out of a population of 130 millions, how many champions even at the asian level have they produced leave except for jansher and jahangir khan in squash.Long live Indian sports.

I simply do not agree with Moiz' post and his retarded analysis. I am a non-vegetarian...the amount of meat I consume on daily basis I should be faster than Michael Holding. I am too scared to know the diet of Shoaib Akhtar who breaks down after 11 overs and that too after a year of 'rest'.

Please remove his abusive post. He is an insult to intelligent men...and women.

Non-Vegetarian Pakistani living in LA

Hmmmm...let's see. How many great rivalries do we have in the game of cricket? One...two...th...f...no, no...two...just two: Australia/England and India/Pakistan, and even out of those two the Australia/England one is more like a bad love affair than a true rivalry. It is the competition, found aplenty in football, that generates interest. Cricket owes its survival to India and Pakistan.

But then you're misreading your fifteen-year old too. Teenagers, especially those of colonial romantics, are characterized by a manifest desire to be different from their peers even if it is just for the sake of being different. Speaking English as opposed to Hindi/Urdu being a case in point. The elite have always tried to be different from the masses lest they themselves become masses. And you're right, your sample is too small. Cricket not only is in good health, but it thrives with the masses with prospects of a decent future.

A quick glance at the Indian and Pakistani players should tell you where the players are coming from. What teenager would want to admit in public that her idol is...err, for example... Harbhajan Singh? Or that she dreams about going on a date with....Mohammad Yousuf? David Beckham over Sachin Tendulkar? You decide. Heck, I'll take a long-retired Maradona over Inzamam any day of the week. What are you talking about?

A note for Mustafa Moiz: You could've made your point in a decent way and many people would've agreed with you. But somehow your beastly instincts overcame your civility and you couldn't resist being condescending. What is that going to achieve? There are plenty of those who can be worse than you and I'm sure we'll see some of them here after your remark.

the best analysis so far i've read is by Ian Woolridge "The contract had run out: do your best, contrive spurious excuses and run home to check your bank account." (cricinfo "quote.....unquote".)

say what you will about the Pakistani team but they are the most exciting team to watch, period.
When Shoaib turned up to play for a 3rd rate county team in England half the town turned up to watch him play, I don't know if anyone in the world would pay to watch an Indian player (I mean non Indian). Pakistani players are always in the news for good or bad things which makes them a lot more exciting and also human, Indian players to me seem like robots. Recently India has produced Srisant, I think he looks like a player with passion, which Indian players seem to be lacking. Pakistani has always produced players with passion and aggression, afridi,akram,imran,shoaib etc, etc.

Lets face it... there is a lot more money in the game of football. What this really means is that there is a lot more support. As it is played over a shorter time than a cricket match (even a 20twenty game) it has more appeal to more of the population.

India are a great team to watch from time to time. But appart from a recent display against the West Indies they haven't had much to cheer about for a while. With a great start in South Africa with a test match win... they simply faded away, and worse yet weren't even a feature in the one day series.

With limited hope in the upcomming world cup (mostly because I think once again Austraila are gonna walk it) someone else might stake a claim. But with India and South Africa the underperformers and chokers... who else is there? Pakistan with all their internal problems? West Indies, who seem to have a serious lack in depth? England, well enough said! Bangladesh and Zimbabwe... well they can dream. Sri Lanka, possibles as they have to be considered Dark Horses but have not had that great a run... cept against England (but does that count?). I guess that leaves New Zealand. On their day I have no doubt that they really can turn the tide, but with so many injuries I think they will find that fielding a fully fit first XI difficult.

All that said... with the alarming regularity that Australia win, why bother to get too excited over a game that you aren't going to win?

At least in the football world cup, played over less time, including more teams there is a greater chance of an upset. A greater chance that any one of the competing sides might win. And in that lies the answer. In a game where everyone has a chance, everyone has interest.

Just because some privileged school kids in the metros consider football cooler than cricket, it doesn't spell the death of Indian cricket. Does the author mean to say that these prospective cricketers are gonna become football pros ? This is as likely as the Indian football team winning the football World Cup! Even if they do make it big in football, then Indian football will be well-served. So, it's a win-win situation! I guess the popularity of EPL has got to do with today's instant gratification culture, in which winning is everything. All it takes is a few wins by the Indian team for cricket to be cool again, among its "fair-weather" supporters!

... and isint it all good for Indian cricket? THE problem with Indian cricket is that it does not have competition in the mind space of people. So stars can thrive even when on cruise control. There is competition for Indian cricket. Good. Great. Maybe some one will even think that a commercially succesful, competitve domestic club structure is a good idea. And what will that lead to I wonder...

i agree with each n every person who has aired their views !!!personally speaking,we can never decide who rules the roost in this amazing and exciting world of sports!!!!i guess it all comes down to who performs well AND CONSISTENTLY!!!
REST IS TO THE MILLIONS OF VIEWERS THEMSELVES TO DECIDE!!!

Pakistan has exciting player - pity they... walk out, diva behave. Akhtar is overweight - half the town comes out to watch him play because a. half the town is of pakistani origin b. such a small town that he is the most famous person ever to visit. Honestly - I am an Indian living in the UK and I feel embarassed for the average Pakistani cricket fan.

It's not the death of Indian cricket - it's globalisation and wanting something that not everbody has - not neccesarily rich but different. It's like saying why don't I drive a Maruti instead of Hyundai?

At first place, India should not have been playing Cricket at all. We don't belong to it. I guess, football is the game we should have be aspiring for. Something has gone wrong somewhere. Time has come now to correct it......hope it will be corrected in my life time. Though I am a hardcore fan of cricket....

Let me reverse the argument on its heads. Do we really need cricket to be cool? I have been a cricket fan all my life, and I believe, without arrogance, that I can count myself in the troupe of the "true fans" - those who prefer a good test match over the one day game, and who like a sporting wicket over a belter.

The commercialisation of cricket has widely increased its fan base, but what about the "quality" of the interest? A lot of it is just "tamasha" cricket with the broadcaster too quick to switch to an advertisement the moment the final ball of the over has been bowled.

I know that the true cricketing fans know what I am taking about. I am all for cricket being less popular, and returning to its basics.

Give me a great batsman facing up to a great swing bowler in overcast conditions on the first day of a test match. And I'll watch for hours. The decline of cricket from the agendas of fickle fans may return it to its true lovers.

first of all mr.moiz,most powerfull animal,elephant,is vegitarian.shoieb is non-vegi..why he take..?understand?srinath and kumble both veg...ok?
yes in future cricket would not change,then automatically ppl will change their intrest and switch to other sports,but look at aus,they r taking this game at onther level,and other will follow him,its sure!!so dont worry for now.a 15 year boy have a many like-dislike,if doesnt like cricket,leave him.think abt many.this is not the time yet to worry,put this blog after 2010.
80%of indian popu still didnt know the name of ARSNEL!!!!

I am a born and bred Englishman living a stone's throw from South Harrow who would much rather sit and watch five days of India playing Australia or Pakistan than any number of minutes of Arsenal (or Chelsea or Man United for that matter) playing anybody. Admittedly, when it comes to football I am a West Ham fan, but I would still rather watch India play cricket than any football match (the only exception might be an England match in the World Cup or European Cup, but even that's not a certainty).

Yes I do prefer cricket to football, but in particular I am an India and an England fan. Why? Well despite having grown up in England (the first cricket match I went to was England v India at Lord's in 1974) and keenly remembering Headingly 1981 as the greatest test I ever saw, I lost interest in cricket in the mid-eighties. However, from 1995 to 2000 I lived in India and my interest was re-kindled and I became a dedicated supporter of India. Being an England fan and being an India fan seems to have something in common - a feeling that one's team should be doing a whole lot better than it is. There are moments of absolute bliss - Kolkata 2001 (like Headingly 1981 all over again), Adeleide 2002, Ashes 2005, but also moments of exasperation and pain - Chennai 1999 (vs Pak), SCG 2004 (Waugh should have been given out lbw to Kumble when he first came out) and Ashes 2006/7.

My point: the love of watching India play comes from knowing something wonderful can happen, even if it doesn't. But when it does, the only thing to match it is seeing England beat Australia. I go mad watching (mostly) Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag, Ganguly lose their wickets cheaply, but I still have to watch because I know something special may be just around the corner. I only hope the next generation can do something to keep me as excited as these guys have for the last ten years.

i do not wanna get into india vs pakistan here and coming back to the the article,its a really good one.it is true that the middle class indian school kid does not find cricket "cool"anymore.i ve noticed this over a period of time and cricket in this country is witnessing a paradigm shift in its viwership.the smaller cities and villages are getting their first tv coverage and like the middleclasses during the 1983 they are finding the game charming and intresting.for the city viwer live"packaged "football in better looking parts of the world is becoming more and more appealing

I am not sure I belong to the generation that Mukul discussed. But, I am not too adrift. I am 22 years young and I am doing a Ph.D. in the U.S. of A. Often, I am asked, what do I miss the most? I say family and then watching cricket with my dad. When I look back, it was not the holidays we took to Ooty, Kodai, Darjelling that I missed, it was the Sunday afternoon's watching, on the couch, me and my dad, watch India play. Even, today when I do see some matches, I invariably call him at the fall of each wicket. Cricket is/was an integral part of the dad-son chemistry.

Well, but then, what better can you expect from somebody, who bunked school, travelled about 10 miles to grandpa's place, to see Gavin Larsen open the bowling in a W.I vs N.Z test match.

Though, I might be a cricket-nut, I believe I am quite representative of my generation. I would, to the point of forcing, encourage my kids to see, if not play, the beautiful game.

It's just a passing fad, Mukul. Cricket is in our blood, our subconscious. All these people are doing is living vicariously through the accomplishments of far-away football players, because trust me, no Indian is ever going to be good at football. I went to a pretty posh school in India myself, and kids there were obsessed with football/basketball and everything, but when India reached the 2003 world cup final, everything went out the window. People do watch cricket...even the most urbane children watch it...they just don't like to talk about it.

Half of the town came to see shoaib bcoz town was full of pakistani and pakistan people can only play cricket and/or hockey rest of the game lets say any female sport such as tennis... they don't have any one we have atleast some good personality be it sania mirza or narayan karthikayen we r definitely getting better facilities in other sports bcoz our economy is booming and these comp. r putting their money in different sports....soccer in India is waiting for revival....may be in next 5-10 year our soccer team will get better...
Go COLTS

Quote= tintin again "Pakistan has exciting player - pity they... walk out, diva behave. Akhtar is overweight - half the town comes out to watch him play because a. half the town is of pakistani origin b. such a small town that he is the most famous person ever to visit. Honestly - I am an Indian living in the UK and I feel embarassed for the average Pakistani cricket fan."

Pakistan atleast have exciting players then India, a rocking bowling attack with Shoaib, Gul, Asif, Rana, Sami and now Shabir. See what India have got?
Confused Irfan Pathan, degrade Agarkar, Bala Jee and... Zaheer Khan. SreeSanth is a true fast bowler but what he will do without any support?
India have 'big-guns' in bating department but how much they are contributing to the victories? How much consistent victories India have?
Pakistan have worlds fastest bowler with curiest bowling attack. A bunch of thrilling all rounders. Middle order enriched with Inzi, MY and Younas.
Three problems they have, 1. their dumb-ass fielding. 2. Their opening 3. Their internel conflicts.
Let's take just one out that is 3rd one, their internel conflict and no doubt they would have been the most compitative team.

I'm saddened by this. As a cricket fanatic born and still living in England, I wouldn't wish on anyone the year round, wall to wall football hysteria to which we are subjected. If it's any comfort, cricket somehow survives here (thanks in no small measure to British Indians) and even emerges from the shadows every 20 years or so when England wins the Ashes. I cling to the belief that, unlike us here, the Indian people will see through the superficial glitter of the Premiership and perceive what really lies beneath - clubs dominated by owners with questionable motives, a governing body which is powerless to protect match officials against routine cheating and abuse from players and a significant minority of spectators whose sole motivation for attending matches is to express their hatred of the opposition. It's way too late to save England from rampant footballism. India, you still have a chance - grab it now!

Mukul, I wouldn't spend sleepless nights dreading the end of cricket. My son is 8, has grown up in New York, has access to every sport imaginable and yet has well and truly been bitten by the cricket bug. (My worry is therefore, if anything, the opposite of yours.) He will watch test and one-day cricket with equal joy, understands the nuances of a good test match, and also understands that the true emotions of being a supporter do not consist in only supporting a winning team. All power to everyone who love their quick-fix soccer, tennis and --- the words stick here a bit --- golf, and my deepest sympathies to those who live by supporting only winners. But I'm happy with cricket, and I think it will last another generation or two.

Guys...Hold on a second!Yeah i do agree that football is getting popular here in india and the rising interest levels of younger generations in it.But death of cricket in India!??.Satellite tv is popularising soccer but thats about it!How much competitive soccer is being played on any level here?Do you know the lousy football ranking of our country?Soccer like cricket reqiures tradition which lacks here.Cricket rules and will keep ruling!Enjoy watching premier league though!

A very insightful commentary by Mukul on the changing tastes of youngsters in Metros.As you rightly pointed out , its hep to watch football in the more metroed places , and thats probably a reason why most of our cricketers come from the smaller towns , where the heat and dust of gully cricket is more exciting than watching 2 foreign teams locked in a goalless draw.

Like your son , I too studied in SPV about 12 years back , it has a great cricketing tradition.A hard and bouncy track and lush cricketing outfields set in a lodhi-esque manicured British Raj setting.What a pity that youngsters today are not thrilled to put on the whites.The sound of the cherry on the willow is slowly dissapearing.Cricket was always a romantic's game.Sigh !

The article silent death of Indian cricket is true in most cases. For the newer generation it is almost entirely true. I have a solution though. Why not have inter state 20-20 matches. The amount of money the BCCI is earning, this can be done on a very large scale and also with state logos, like in the US, for cricket teams, would make it attractive to youngsters. Ranji trophy is a nice way of spotting talent but if the newer generation is not interested in cricket, then where are we going to find the next dadas,the dravids, the tendulkars and so on? We need to make it attractive to the youngsters, see what appeals to them in the english premiere league and implement it over here.

Well truly said Andrew. India have their chances now, they are the largest cricketing country in world and Cricket is alive in many ICC associates becouse of NRI's.
BCCI must take constractive steps towards imprving cricket and yes... 20/20. Spread it people, make clubs like English Premier league. Also take this 20/20 form of cricket into Olympics.

I have lived in Delhi and have several friends who have attended SPV. It is an elitist (and excllent, I might add) institution and the demographic of the average student skews upper middle class and above. Cricket used to be mildly popular at Sardar Patel and other elite colleges in New Delhi such as Modern School, but it is no longer as cool, simply because the kids there have access to satellite cable and want to watch foreign programming - especially sports.
Cricket is extremely popular with kids in the middle class and lower income brackets. Sarwan Public School - which does not even compare to SPV academically - has been dominating the cricket scene in Delhi for quite a while. Most of the kids there are not from posh South Delhi (or NDMC) homes and they play for hours in the punishing Delhi heat. Winning tournaments is a matter of pride for these kids.
The love for European football among Indian kids is a sign of the times. It reflects a class divide in society. It is the result of economic progress and the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of upward mobility that come with it.
In terms of creating diversity, it is great, and may even bring some attention to Indian football, but then it may not be as cool as European football, so I would not place too many eggs in that basket. I certainly do not expect too many priviliged children giving up the prospect of air-conditioned offices for an unpredictable future in Indian football. Cricket remains a religion for the great masses and they are far more invested in it than the class of kids mentioned here.
Many of you have also talked correctly about the players coming in from smaller centers. This is very true indeed. Anyone in India can tell you that Rahul Dravid is extremely popular with the more educated (English-medium) crowd which doesn't really watch cricket. They love to go after the Tendulkar's and the Dev's but lap up Rahul. Why? Because the man can speak English better than all of his team-mates. I am not talking about cricket fans who are far less discriminating. It's just that Dravid appeals to that section of the population, they identify with him and hence like him. It is perfectly natural. But it is not based on the cricket he plays. The line between entertainment and sport gets blurrier everyday.
As a form of TV entertainment and its implications on ad revenue, the author makes a valid observation. With this bifurcation in society, we will probably see different kinds of sponsors for football on ESPN and cricket on the same. Again, that will be a social phenomenon. The amount of money that is plugged into cricket may suffer a dent at that point. Sadly, the other half will not go towards Indian football. But hey, it is a free market and free country.Who knows, in the near (1-2 centuries) future, kids from SPV will take as much of an interest in Babu Mani and Bikash Panji as they do in Viera and Raul.

A nice commentary. I am not against freedom of choice. So kids can watch any sport they wish to. It's in the BCCI and the ICC's hands to make sure that they make the game competitive with the rest of what's happening on TV. With the sheer number of cricketers in India and the financial muscle of the BCCI, you could easily come up with a professional cricket league, similar to the NBA/NFL or the F.A Premier League. Domestic Cricket in India is still limited to the same old trophies, Ranji, Deodhar, Irani and Duleep. Instead, if each major city or state had a team and played in conferences and divisions, with the full force of BCCI marketing, it would make the game a lot more viewable and win back Gen-X/Y kids that think watching Arsenal battle MU is cool.

A note to Mustafa Moiz: It's plainly evident from your comments that you have neither understood the context of the blog nor have the acumen to construct an intelligent response. At least, the Indian team is diverse enough to include men from all different religious backgrounds.

I apologize for my hasty statements.

I wish the community and environment we had in Dubai could be duplicated throughout South-East Asia. Growing up was awesome; you had a little bit of every culture. In winters we played football - idolizing Ian Rush/Kenny Dalglish of Liverpool 1990's. Our playing buddies were mostly Pakistani/Indian and our apponents were usually Arab - Locals/Palestinians/Africans. In summers we played Cricket! and the same football buddies became opponents and the line was drawn between Pakistani and Indian. Sports life was great and for a obtuse comment made by "Moiz" that Indians are vegetarians and hence lack bite, let me assure him he hasn’t met many an Indian - I am a Pakistani.

I understand what people are saying here. I've always been a cricket fan, but in the mid 90's whilst a teenager i was completely addicted to football, wouln't miss a match whoever it was. However, by the time i got to university this quickly led to a saturation point. I now only perhaps watch the big matches. However, i follow cricket very closes and the fortunes of India. If i could, i'd watch every match. To me, you cannot compare the short game of football, with a longer game of cricket. Cricket at times so often brings out the best in sportsmanship...It is so often a battle within a battle. Even now, i'm still learning the game. It teaches a respect for the game and individuals which soccer cannot teach. When Rahul Dravid scored those consecutive hundreds in test matchs when touring England, i felt so proud....it wasn't necessarily pretty, but it showed characteristics of toughness, resilience and the will to survive which one needs in life. This combined with a team which has such good role models for younger people. Indians should be pround of their team whatever there achievments to date.

I think batting wickets are taking the interest out of the game. I mean its totally ridicoulous that people these days enjoy a runfest of 320 runs each team. Games used to so much more fun when average scores were in the 220-250 range. Powerplays, thick bats and crazy dead wickets are to blame for all this. I cannot understand why a pitch when its score is low , like when India scored 189 is criticised so much even when it makes up for such exciting viewing. If people enjoyed the other runfests more than this im sorry, its not the cricketers but the people who are to blame. Get back to the 250 average scores and you will see cricket revive itself. These wickets are created for commercial benefits but those very people who support them now will realise that this led to the death of this classic risk v return game.

Cricket has, is, and will always be the #1 sport in India. The apparent shift towards soccer that Mr.Kesavan has described in his article has been evident for a long time now. Even a decade ago, when I was in high school in India, I knew kids who'd watch any sport but cricket just to set themselves apart from the "riff-raff". It's just a case of condescending kids trying to be different - nothing more.

As for me, even 10 years of living in the US has not diluted my love of cricket (despite the fact that it is not part of the mainstream culture here). The only way I can follow cricket is via cricinfo (and pay-per-view rarely), and that in itself gives me more pleasure than watching any other sport on TV. As someone pointed it out, cricket is in our blood. It will never die out.

Mukul, like most of us has got a bit right and a bit off target.
For a lot of young people in India cricket heroes are still out there. Wins/losses record as long long as they are not not too many losses are still encouraging enough for role models.
The trick as always is to bounce between the two sports in a way that both sports advance, physical fitness from football or EPL if emulated by the Indian youth could lead to the stoppage of all veggie jokes which however crude have some resonance in physical strength of the average population (not exception in 1 billion) due to inadequate intake of proteins.
If we can raise India's football FIFA ranking (it is below Yemen where life is much tougher than in India in terms of nutrition) from miserable to a tolerable ranking Cricket will improve as a result

I object to the notion that the 2004 India team were "great". Australia were missing mcgrath and warne at the time. also 20/20 is not cricket, it's just stupid.

Most of the comments which are pro-soccer, go on the lines of "nothing succeeds like sucess"/"fotball is a much shorter game, so it suits the fast moving world"/"soccer players are better than Indian/Pakistani cricketers".

I would like to talk about those comments in that order.

When a EPL fan says that Aresenal ( or whichever is the top EPL side ) attracts people because of its success, it doesnt really convince me. Because it sounds like more an effort to be seen as "trendy" than actually liking their (Arsenal's) game. When you follow a game or a player for that matter, you do it because there is something about the game/team/player that you love. And then you want your team to be successfull cause you love them and not the other way round. If people would have followed teams just because they are successfull, then they would have to change their loyalties (in terms of supporting) every 2-3 months cause in a game like soccer no team stays on top for too long. So, the first arguement sounds silly.

Sir, your blog is spot on. It's amazing how people from countries as diverse and remote from England as Saudi Arabia, Japan, and India can take the English Premier League so seriously. I can tell you, it makes for a huge headache in P.E. at school.
P.S. This doesn't excuse his brash and utterly needless comment, but I hope everybody here realizes that Mr. Mustafa Moiz, of the controversial vegetarian comment, is a mere 13 years old? Please don't take offence at his foolish insult and forgive him

And the trouble is that it's not just in your native India. I am a Pakistani living in Saudi Arabia and I have to deal with the SAME HEADACHES. It's agonizing, because the Saudis are obsessed with football.

Dear mustafa moiz,
From your words and style of expression i could make out that you are a pakistani, thats why you are so scared of Praising Indian team.You can never have a batsman of sachin's class. Don;t forget form is temporary but class is permanent.Sachin has never played for himself, he is more than demi god for the indians.Ably supported by viru,the wall and our dada. Belivwe me this dealy trio is gona strike back.And they will hit Pakistan and other countries out of the stadium, just wait for a month then see the tigers unleashed along with dhoni, Pathan and Robin as their cubs.

As another Englishman tired of the way in which English society is disintegrating, I can assure you that the reality of football is rather different than the picture siddharth painted.

It is a principal source of bad role models (together with the gangster music scene) for youths today - I cannot think of one premiership football who I respect as a person. I am a university student living in a rough council estate - what do the youths do all day? Skip school, drink, smoke, and play football in the street.

Thank goodness cricket is a sport in which the positive aspects of a person's character normally unfold.

I can't believe people talking of India being chokers & glorifying Arsenal.The club have never been European Champions.They come closest to being chokers in Europe.

The new trend is a result of intensive marketing on the part of the FA.The BCCI has taken the people of India for granted and that is why the upper middle class is turning to other sports.

first of all i am really very sorry for moiz whatever he said above. believe me people these are very few people in our sorroudings who just cant see interaction among poeple of both countriesand such people are in both ways. i am really very sorry and ignoring such people is better idea.
secondly i still believe firmly that cricket is most exciting game . what we are lacking is just the motivation of players. being in growing countries it is a dillema of middle class, they have to think of their bred n butter and it becomes a mentallity of a nation. this is wt happening in sub continent. players dont have motivation, they just have to earn their livelyhood. paksitan seems a better team just bcoz of their attacking nature and true fast bowlers on the other hand india team lacks it. neuteraly speaking in my life i rarely saw attitude of any indian player which was of sreesanth in south africa. he showed guts, aggression and despression to win and thats wt is needed to pull the people back. selecting a team selectors should also look for the players motivation towards game and team win. and players should look towards nathan astle whose innerself did not allow him to continue becoz he felt he is not motivated enough.
20/20 will be a better embassoder of game specially for the people who used to complaint a time factor and if some how 20/20 makes its way to olympics that would be a new birth of cricket.
now is the time when ICC should look into the matters of pitches too. there should be supporting wickets so that the balance could be made.
ausies dominence in the game is a guest now. after the retirement of glenn,warn its not going to be easy for them. i am not saying this to make a comment that they are going to be weakened, they will remain strong but once teams started thinking and believing that they can beat them then there is going to be a compitition atleast.
and in the end i would love to say that"DONT WORRY PEOPLE CRICKET IS IN OUR BLOOD, IT IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE".

Football is a lovely game, but my heart beats for Cricket and it always will. It is like chess on a grander scale. It is a mind game, more so than any other sport in the world. The Aussies have realized that and are playing the game in that revolutionary fashion. The day India takes its first step in that direction, I believe with Sreesanth it might have started already, it will become 'cool' again to the sattelite TV generation.

For Pity's sake all you Indians saying how exciting you find football! Thank your lucky stars you don't live in a football obsessed country like England, you'd soon be sick of it! The Premier League more exciting than Cricket? Only 2 teams can win in any given season and this year the title is pretty much decided already. At least Australia lose the odd series! Ten years ago things might have been differant in the Premiership but not any more.

2 serious points however:
1. The idea that India can only sustain one major sport is ridiculous (see much smaller countries like Australia, NZ, Canada).

2. Even if Cricket is losing ground in India it would swiftly be regained by a champion side. (Eg Cricket and Rugby got a huge boost in England in 2005 and 2003 respectively, starting from a much smaller base than Indian Cricket).

2. IF there really is a problem

What you have noticed here is a trend among youth. Yes, teenagers and young indians in metro cities like watching EPL, like watching Formula 1, etc. But we also have to look at this trend in larger scheme of things, that is "importance of sport in a young indian's life".
Not only are young indians inclined towards football, racing or any other sport, the amount of time they spend watching sports has gone up significantly since the advent of cable television. The proportion of cricket in the pie may have stopped growing or started declining but you have to keep in mind that the pie is growing at a much faster rate than the rate at which cricket's relative popularity is decreasing.

Indian youth today wants to be part of global mainstream audience, they want to be seen as progressive bunch of people whose tastes match those of people globally (in whatever they do from clothing to movies to sports to professional careers), especially in western countries. We see more and more people ruing the fact that India is not a significant force in global games because it is not consistent with their idea of 'The new India' and the image that they would like to portray of themselves, of their India.

I have no doubt in my mind that Cricket will thrive in India, along with rising popularity of other games. And I take it as a positive sign of things to come, a positive sign of India's competitiveness in other sports.

Lets look at history of a sport thats dead in India today, Hockey ! Lets ask ourselves, when did it really die and why? Did it die because cricket became more popular? I doubt so. It died due to its own problems, not because of cricket. If at all, I am more worried of absolute Australian domination of Cricket than of rising popularity of other sports.

The author gets it right when he says that watching Arsenel or other premiership teams play is 'cool' for most schoolboys. That in itself, however, is the reason that a prolonged interest in such sports will be hard to sustain. I graduated from high school a few years ago, and was an ardent United fan for close to 5 yrs. And a lot of people i knew supported other teams, mostly Real Madrid, Milan and Barcelona. You wont find too many indians supporting Valencia or Portsmouth or sadly, even Liverpool, simply because these teams dont win that often, and dont have that drawing power. So is this a shift in sporting interest? I dont think so..not until someone goes way beyond Bhutia. A good example is the trail that Paes and Bhupathi blazed. Tennis has picked up, and we now have Sania who has accomplished a tremendous amount, even without being a top tier tennis player yet.

What im trying to say is that most teenagers will find themselves interested in different things at different times. It may be the EPL today, or the NBA tomorrow. But it would need an even equal to the 83 world cup victory to shake the india masses away from cricket.

Believe me, come this march, when Sachin and sourav step down the track, and millions of indians, all over the world, step out to celebrate our win, all fears about crickets slow death will evaporate.

Cricket will rule forever in India, led to the forefront by zillions of middle class families and kids who will fall in love with the game as they silently dream to accomplish what their heroes have !! Sachin, Rahul, Sourav, Veeru, Pathan, Dhoni and others will rule their hearts and though Beckham, Figo, Ronaldo and the likes have their occasional charm they can only be momentary.
And as far as Mr Mostafa and the other Pakistani despos are concerned, they need to think before they write. To think that Sachin plays for himself and not the country is almost laughable when their own, Shoaib doesn't even turn up to play as defeat stares the team. If not for Yousuf, the pakistani team would have been dead and buried by England and West Indies in their own backyard

Not to mention how many Indians would rather prefer watching Roger Fedrer than India. I know some.

I am an indian in my mid-twenties in the US and I do not miss a single international match worth following (definitely the ones where india is playing) . There are many like me out here, we buy matches from the net, stay up nights to watch the matches and even agree to pay obscene amounts of money to watch it Live on TV.

There are many cricket clubs out here, we rent out school fields during the summer breaks (mostly baseball diamonds) and have our matches there.

There are millions of indians all over the world who are crazy about team India. So if your son, sitting in Delhi , starts thinking that EPL's cooler than Indian cricket, then the problem's not in the indian team or how they perfrom or in cricket itself... try searching some place closer to home ....

Forget about cricket being a romantic’s game. The reason Indian cricket may be dying (I can’t say for sure, as I don’t live in India) seems to me to be a result of stagnation within the national team. The most exciting player I’ve seen in a long time is Sreesanth, but, apart from him, the rest of them aren’t anything to write home about. I started following cricket far too late to see Tendulkar in his pomp, but the unquestioning faith of many of my friends when it came to his place in the team grated, especially when, as other commentators have mentioned, one big score was enough to tide him over for a few years of dodgy performances. I was born in India, and have grown up in Australia, watching the Australian team thrash everyone more often than not. And it gets boring. The Ashes 2005 were huge, even here in Australia, because we were seeing a real competition for the first time in years. Cricket was again in the national consciousness. This year – don’t even ask. Cricket has slipped away from the mainstream, except for news readers offhandedly gloating over England’s poor performances. It’s the lack of competition – Australia overperform. India underperform. I say this because what Indian cricket seems to need is a good boot up the arse, and if it means losing its audience (and a good chunk of funding) to stupidball, then so be it.

What some people have fialed to realise is that Indians are an intelligent, gentle, kindly people and a therefore naturally suited to a game like cricket. Soccer is a game for thugs only. If young Indians would rather turn out like Wayne Rooney than Rahul Dravid then your country will destroy itself. But this will not happen.

A very interesting article.

Without getting into how well or bad the Indian cricket team is doing at the moment, I think its healthy for Indian sports and Indian cricket and the Indian cricket team, that the Indian public is starting to follow, respect and admire other sports. One among which is the English Premiership. I believe the Indian team is under pressure and has been under tremendous pressure over many many years - more pressure than what the Indian PM faces on a day-to-day basis given that everyone follows cricket. Greg Chappell talks about this on his interview with CNN-IBN.

Its another matter all together if kids are spending ridiculous amount of money on buying really expensive team tshirts - thats consumerism (which is everywhere these days) and should not be confused with the reason why cricket is failing to catch the interest of young Indians.

And last, football is a game thats most popular across the world. Its just a matter of time, with accessibility, its going to become more so in India.

For the sake of Indian cricket, I really hope there are more sports that catch the fancy of Indian public.

I am an Auzzie but for a while now I have been sitting up watching test matches and one day cricket from other countries, like NZ - Sri- Lanka, India and South Africa, England - NZ and at the moment Pakistan and SA and I must say I have enjoyed them all. I think it is the thrill of not knowing who will win and the expectation of the twists and turns because the teams are evenly matched, there's nothing more boring then watching something if you know how it will end. So please you guys keep cricket alive.

Why is it not possible for people to like both? People can enjoy more than 1 sport.

However, in saying that...I would prefer a Pakistan v South Africa test match (and I'm an Aussie) to watching Chelsea v Man U or Brazil v Mexico in a World Cup Semi...An I'm a fan of both sports. Only match I would prefer to two foregin cricket teams battling it out is the WC final itself! But any game involving Australia; cricket, hands down.

yeah this god like stature given to indian players must go !!! there is a talk of sehwag coming back in the team. tell you what, if he was playing for australia he would have long been a forgotten man !!! just ask bevan !!

Tintin "Well - it could be worse. We could have been Pakistani or even English and had to support their cricket teams!"

Kindly read the statistics provided by cricinfo. Homepage -> Records -> Test Records -> Tests: result statistics -> Test Win-Loss Summary of all Countries

Please see where India is ranked in all of them and then dish out comments without any backing up. You can also check recent records where Pakistan is ahead.

the prob.. with indains sporters is that they only wanna see team win .guys i will take desi,s another 100 years before football takes ovar.

I have admired Mukul Kesavan's eloquence quite a bit he hasn't disappointed - witness the delicate neologism 'haute salariat'. I also felt that a lot of commenters missed the fact that he is admitting to an act of reading tea leaves here. He isn't claiming with any certainty that something drastic will necessarily happen.

Nevertheless, I think he makes good observations about how the center of gravity of Indian cricket is moving away from the cities. This was evident sometime last year, when Kaif, Raina, R. P. Singh and Piyush Chawla (all from U.P.) were all in the Indian team. Back in the 1980s, the Indian team came mostly from Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore. Gopal Sharma had to huff and puff to be the first U.P. player. Hyderabad had its first major player in Azhar, twenty or so years after Jaisimha. Bengal's had to wait till Ganguly came along.

Even though I am a huge cricket fan myself, I don't share Kesavan's alarm at the dip in interest in cricket. I have always felt that India's deification of one game and its celebrities was unhealthy. And I think the Indian team hardly lives up to the promise of its talent, not to speak of the hype surrounding it. Small wonder that people are getting tired of the perennial promise of a great team just around the corner. It can only be a good thing for other sports to get much-deserved attention from the world's second most populous nation.

nice article, but of course, the logic is quite simple. You follow the sport which is popular in your country/city. I am assuming your son was born and has spent most of his life in the UK, then he would be obviously following soccer, because 1) England is poor in all the other sports (soccer included, where they have superstars, but suck as a team 2) He is not an Indian, by heart (no hard feelings, but thats the truth). Even if India plays really well, which again is ironic provided the level of domestic cricket and the nature of Indian pitches, he will still be routing for arsenal. "In rome, do as romans do!!".

I would like to commend Mustafa Moiz for his apology. I cannot recollect ever having read an apology by anyone on a blog, least of all in the context of Indo-Pak cricket arguments.

im 18,most if not all my friends follow EPL,cricket is relegated to a mere sidenote,however in their conversations i have noticed that most of then are fair-weather fans who are likely to switch alegiances after a string of low performances,which you can do while following EPL but cant do that in cricket,so the problem lies with our sports fans who want to see the side they are supporting win all the time(show me an indian supporting watford or wigan),personally the EPL looks like a playground for overpaid mercenaries with bloated egos and strange hairstyles,managed by overpaid mercenaries with bloated egos with a dislike for international fixtures and owned by billionaires with dubious mafia links,and covered by tabloids about whom less said the better
the most absurd comment i heard was that a friend of mine watched the EPL because indian cricketers play for money

p.s-leave mr moiz alone,he has apologised for what he wrote

good read... and a very obvious tale of a test cricket loving father and EPL loving son. I suddenly remember the school days (Its been 7 years after that), my dad used to call it a day off whenever there used to be quality matches on tv. Bunking school used to infuriate my mother but somehow i managed to save my skin by promising double effort in the days to come... the sheer pleasure of watching rajesh chauhan send saqlain mustaq over the ropes in the penultimate ball of the innings to ensure a victory or listening to dada s debut century at lords in a radio or the sheer brilliance of laxman and dravid at the eden gardens to achieve the impossible is sheer orgasm.

living in a fast paced world i dont recall watching cricket as i used to once, but i do keep the newz oof everythng around.

EPL on the other hand runs on weekends and that too in the evening or late at night when i'm home.Its better planned for the market. the coverage, the accesories in the market makes the game quite glamorous to the present generation. Its a quality product no doubt and hence people flip for it.

maybe a visit to the stadium on the fourth day of a test match with india needing 250 for victory and shoaib akhtar screaming down to tendulkar would make them realise their first love

I am neither Indian nor Pakistani to take sides regarding Mustafa Moiz's crude comments and the emotional and somewhat equally crude reactions from some of the Indians. As a Sri Lankan, I hope this doesn't become a forum for racist and religious bigotry. However, I would like to point out certain hard realities to both sides. India desperately needs to feed meat or at least fish (like we Sri Lankans do!) to its fast bowlers. None of the Indian bowlers in the last 30 yrs, except Kapil Dev, has had the menacing physique or the intimidating looks that are critical to a fast bowler. I didn't need any one to tell me that Venkatesh Prasad and Srinath were vegetarian bowlers. I could tell from a mile away just with their body language. I think they did a decent job with the ball, despite this disadvantage - mostly using their brains that Nirbhay Singh referred to (by the way, please don't write hindi words in this blog - this is a Cricket Blog!). However, cricket is not a platform to show the might of vegetarians. If it was, the Indian Vegetarian Fast Bowlers have failed miserably, compared to the many meat-eating fast bowlers from Pakistan who have terrorized batsmen all over the world. However, the Indian batsmen seem to be miles apart from the Pakistani batsmen in the last 30 years. Batting doesn't require as much raw power. It requires mental toughness, focus, concentration, etc. in addition to basic physical fitness. This is where the Vegetarian Indians score much more than the Pakistani batsmen in the past 30 years. It is my personal opinion that Pakistani cities and villages seem to churn out the most naturally talented cricketers in the world, next to the Caribbeans ofcourse!. However, they seem to lack the intelligence or the mental toughness to perform consistently and professionally over a long period. Their inconsistency is a laughing stock in the cricketing world but no writes them off at any stage. One energetic, passionate over from either Akram or Waqar or Shoaib could turn the match upside down. India or Sri Lanka never had such a fast bowler. . . But then again, look at Pathan and Zahir Khan - they are worse than Balaji or Munaf patel when it comes to menacing physique and looks. So, its not the food. May be the water! or May be the predominantly Punjabi blood in most Pakistani players/fast bowlers. Perhaps, India should only recruit from its own Punjab/Haryana states (who are generally much bigger than the vegetarian south indians such as prasad and srinath!) and get the vegetarians to bowl spinners. And for Mr Moif, face it, whatever you said about tendulkar is out of jealousy than any thing else. You know it and I know it (as a Sri Lankan) that he is the best South Asian batsman still playing the game (Lara being the best). I know you would like to think that Imzy, Yousouf are better than Sachin but they are not even close when you look at the last 15 years!

This more a class issue than anything else. The elite/yuppy crowd follow some esoteric sport - golf (high entry cost will always make it elite), lacrosse, squash - whatever the mass can't afford. The moment indian elite kids know that only boors and the mass follow football; they will like wise shift loyalty. Cricket in India is a mass game and there will always be elites involved in it just as Cinema is dirty but the elite are always there.

very true mukul,
We do love to watch football.........
But whenever we get a chance......... WE PLAY CRICKET.
As per my understanding, we could excel only in those sports which need skill rather than physical strength.
We have done well in all the games which involves skill and endurance i.e; chess, golf, billiards, cricket, we had a guy in formula one as well.
We were world champions in hockey as long as it was the game of skill..........now its more power..and we have lost the plot.
We can never produce a world class team in games like football, basketball, rugby etc atleast for next 20-30 years.
but no problem.....for me... mind always matters more over power.........and we have lots of it.

Interesting.. but made me think. I'm a 21 year old having studied in Modern School and St. Stephen's College, two of the most 'snobbish' and 'westernized' institutions in our country. Yet, I'm crazy about cricket, and have no qualms about watching each and every ball of a good five day test match. In fact, I'd rather watch a test match than an ODI. ODI's are becoming predictable, but what attracts me to test cricket is the unpredictability, the different storyline that test matches take exhibit accross varied conditions. In which other sport can you have a highest score of 952 and a lowest of 26? It requires the strategizing of chess coupled with the skill of an artist, the discipline of a classical musician, and, in some cases, the power of a boxer.

But then again, I'm probably just the odd one out. In a sense, I am. The sense being that while I'm crazy about only cricket, my classmates from both school and college are crazy about football, tennis and basketball in addition to cricket. In ADDITION to. What you describe in your blog signals to me one thing - that upper and upper-middle class Indian kids now have a wider range of sports they're interested in. They appreciate good sport, no matter what the sport. And I say this from experience. One moment you could discuss the EPL with them, and the next moment you caould talk cricket.