Football was my first love during my childhood. Cricket came only second. Though I have played more cricket than
football, I always enjoyed watching football matches. Football was a game that was enjoyed by
everyone at my home, including my parents.
Both my parents didn’t understand cricket. My father learnt it later and started
enjoying the matches. But, my mother could never make sense of it. There were many things in cricket like leg
before wicket, byes, no ball etc., which were beyond her understanding. But she loved football, because all that the
players had to do was to chase the ball and put it into the goal post of the
opposite team. Moreover, a football match got over in just two
hours!
My earliest memory of watching a football match was in 1985 when the Nehru Trophy football tournament was held at the Maharaja’s College Stadium at Kochi. We went to watch many matches live. The participating teams included Soviet Union (Now Russia), China, Yugoslavia, Iran, Cameroon etc. The final was between Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Though Soviet Union was a better team, Yugoslavia had beaten them in the league matches, which made the finals exciting. I went to watch the final along with my uncle, who was also a football player. The stadium was already full when we reached there around 3 in the evening. The match was scheduled to start at 6. It was a thriller match where Soviet Union won the trophy defeating Yugoslavia for 2 goals against 1.
1990 FIFA world cup was the first world cup after we had bought a television at home. Since it was held in Italy, all the matches were played late night Indian time. So, my parents could not watch the matches. But I and my brother used to remain awake and watch the matches. I used to make hot tea to keep us awake. One day, the match was supposed to start around 1 am. I and my brother used to sleep in the hall where the TV was kept. At around 11 my parents went to sleep in their room. Since my brother had to go to school early the next day, I told him, ‘You go to sleep now, I will wake you up when the match starts’. He agreed. Door Darshan (DD) was the only channel available those days. Usually, they stopped telecasting at 11 pm. But due to the live telecast of the world cup, they were showing some music programme as fillers till the match started. I sat on the sofa watching that programme. After a while, I thought let me just lean over the sofa and enjoy the music. Sometime later, I was woken up by my father who had got up to use the rest room. It was 3.30 am, the TV was still on with black and white dots that appeared when the telecast was over. I had fallen asleep. The match would have been played in front of me and my brother – both in deep sleep! From the next day onwards, we switched off the TV and slept early, keeping an alarm just before the scheduled time of the match. 1990 FIFA world cup is probably the one where I had watched the maximum number of matches. Later my busy schedule did not permit me to watch many matches.
Football continues to be a craze for me and this time,
since it is played in Qatar, I am planning to watch as many matches as possible.
