Contrary to the overall atmosphere,
there’s a lot of international cricketing events that are happening
currently. A few weeks ago, India just gave Australia a run for their
money in T20 series, defeated Bangladesh a few days ago in the
ongoing Asia T20 Cup and will host the ICC World T20 starting March
8. However, the enthusiasm or the World Cup fever that usually grips
Goa is absent and how!
Perhaps it all began with uncertainties
of whether India’s favourite arch rival – Pakistan –
will play the tournament or not. India’s World Cup records
against Pakistan are sort of legendary and there can seldom be any
better crowd puller than a match between these neighbouring nations.
However, the Pakistan government recently cleared the air by allowing
its cricket team to play the ICC World T20 in India.
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The mega football event,
Indian Super League, that happened last
year, garnered a lot of infectious
enthusiasm all across the state. FC Goa – Goa’s own football team
in the league, received tremendous support
from its football fans. Vehicles were painted with FC Goa logo, team
jerseys were almost sold out and it looked like the entire state was
cheering for its boys to do well in the tournament. While Goa has
held football really close to its heart, it has enjoyed cricket
equally. But this time around, somehow the excitement is just not
there despite one of the biggest international cricketing events
being just around the corner.
Conrad Barretto, the admin of the
Facebook pages – the Football Dugout, and its Cricket counterpart –
the Cricket Dugout – feels that Goa has
always been crazy about football, and
cricket has always got the step-child treatment. Conrad says, “The
thing with football is that it keeps happening round the year whereas
events like Cricket World Cup (T20) happen once in two years. This
ensures that social media is always buzzing with football related
posts and news, while cricket misses out on
this front.”
While Barretto
has his own reasons to believe this, Nikhil
Naik, a young lad from Margao, feels that
the reason for lack of excitement could be attributed to more than
one thing. Nikhil says, “Of late, there has been a lot of sporting
action going on – the Premier League is on, we have had multiple
cricketing events too. Also, we in Goa have been kept rather busy by
events like India Bike Week, and a few other music events happening
in the state. The exams are approaching too. Basically there’s just
too much action happening all over and I think people have had an
overdose.”
