Plus watching big names like Samuel Eto'o, Maicon and Materazzi was an added bonus even though I and Jai paaji spent most of the time figuring out what jersey number was which player and the dear lady accompanying us spent most of her time in queues buying water to keep us hyderated on a hot humid evening.... it was all great fun.
But what amazed me the most was the atmosphere of the stadium and the support for soccer and the local team. Even though US is not known to be a soccer nation and most people don’t even know the rules of the game leave alone following it, the turnout was huge. Each goal scored by the home team was followed by huge fireworks and great applause. The stadium facility was nicely built and well kept….no doubt these guys take home the most medals in each Olympics. If they can do so much for a neglected sport by US standards, God only knows how much they put in for the sports they love…got to watch a American Football match now….
I hope the same happens in India some day…Kids see sports as a career and parents support them and some portion of those 36000 crores earmarked for the CWG goes into sports infrastructure and facilities……
Gosh!! Only if this would have been some knock-out stage match, you could have witnessed shoot out..man :)
ReplyDeleteLets not compare India & US..both are poles apart..if you do a deeper study of CWG-2010, you as a potential manager of tomm would be able to pin point subtle flaws in planning, execution & leadership in less than 5mins. Suresh Kalmadi needs to be hanged by court of law!!
anyway.. good read!!
@Varun Hanging somebody is not a solution.. and I am not trying to say he or anybody else should get away with whatever they have done. But we as people need a paradigm shift for the way we look at sports. Barring cricket, people hardly think of other sports as a career option, parents seldom support their kids...
ReplyDeleteThere has been atleast one positive from the CWG that there is no dreath of money and resources to get the infrastructure and facilities in place..the only thing lacking is the honesty and the will power....
Completely with you on the last line. I hope too that there comes a paradigm shift in our people.
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