Historically,
there has been plenty to suggest that Goa has always been a
footballing state, with far lesser allegiance to cricket than what is
referred to as ‘the beautiful game’. That being said, as
tournaments, people and sports all begin to get glorified and
gentrified, plenty of things change, and people get drawn to screens
as moths do to flames.
The
English Premier League (EPL) first began screening in India, about
half a decade after cable television made its advent into the
country. 1996 was a thrilling season wherein Newcastle United
narrowly missed out to Manchester United in the title race, and was a
first glimpse of the promise that football from Europe held, for
viewers halfway across the world. A few years ago, the Indian Premier
League (IPL) made its way to the cricketing fore. It is a franchise
based interpretation of the T-20 format of cricket and focuses on
individual states having their representative teams face off against
each other. The question is, are fans that follow both sports
divided, in terms of what they would rather watch? Is there an
internal struggle for supremacy? What comes first, cricket or
football? What if the dates clash? What happens then?
Statistics
show that in terms of viewership, the EPL reaches 600 million homes
across 202 countries every week, whereas the IPL reaches 21 million
per game over a span of 15 countries. However, one has to bear in
mind that while the EPL has 20 participating teams, the IPL has only
8. According to many, there has to be consideration for the fact that
the IPL is still in its early stages and is still growing.
Café
catches up with a few fans, and gets their take on their preferences:
I
used to support Chennai due to certain family business relations. But
as there no longer is a Chennai franchise, I hardly watch the IPL,
although I’d be happy if Royal Challengers Bangalore win it. There’s
no choice when it comes to choosing between cricket and football.
There’s only football!
Conrad Barreto
Fan of Liverpool FC and
Chennai Super Kings
I
support Chelsea in the EPL and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, as I
find that both teams are quite similar in many aspects. EPL has the
preference as it is played only on weekends. IPL has become quite
boring as it is played every day, and the results are quite
predictable this season. Meanwhile, the EPL is very unpredictable and
exciting this season. So even though my favourite team, Chelsea, is
not doing so well, I would prefer watching them rather than focus on
the IPL.
Anjyot Talauliker
Fan of Chelsea FC and Mumbai Indians
I’m
a die-hard Arsenal fan. I do support Royal Challengers Bangalore in
the IPL, but that being said, it’s always football that would have
a preference for me. The advantage of IPL being played daily and
football mainly on a weekend doesn’t cause much of an issue, and
hasn’t been a problem for me so far at least.
Elroy Figueiredo
Fan
of Arsenal and Royal Challengers Bangalore
