It’s not easy to be a footballer in India. Even if you are successful and rich. Buried under cricket, other sports in our country are neglected anyway. Football’s case is worse. The IPL-style Indian Super League has completed four years, but the sport connects with us only when European or South American teams are in action. The Indian version has few takers. Hosting the Under-17 World Cup last year changed nothing.
You know football is played by Indians, that there is a national team.
But who are the players? Where do they come from? Why they can’t reach world levels? These questions doesn’t bother us. That’s why it wasn’t surprising when Indian captain Sunil Chhetri made an emotional plea on social media recently, urging fans to come to the stadium to watch the team in an international competition held in Mumbai. It was picked up instantly by Virat Kohli and went viral, which led to packed stands for Monday’s match against Kenya despite torrential rain.
While the sight must have warmed the hearts of the players, the point to note is it took a cricketer to remind the public that football played by Indians is worth watching. The same Mumbai, which crowded the Wankhede Stadium for IPL a few weeks ago, had shown no interest until then, despite knowing that the football team was in town. That’s how it has been.
Celebrities from other walks of life are needed to promote football. It highlights once again the contrast between India’s love for football and the football played by Indians. In a week when the World Cup starts in Russia, India will get divided into groups rooting for Germany, Spain, Brazil, Argentina. Chhetri and his team will see the frenzy around and get ready to prepare quietly for next year’s Asian Cup.
It’s a tournament India has qualified for just the fourth time and being there means players will get a glimpse of what happens at higher levels. Most probably, no one will notice. Chhetri and co. have no choice but to toil away from the limelight. Indian football is still not the product Indians consume.