In a very unusual way,
fans of cricket, and football, and those
who follow both – all are having a gala time, courtesy the Indian Premier
League and the UEFA Champions League taking turns to unfold on TV screens in
quick succession without clashing with each other. The IPL matches that go on
for a duration of around four hours begin at 8 pm and wrap up by around 12 pm.
Soon after, at around 12:15 pm, the UEFA Champions League matches take place,
thanks to the difference in time zones of India and the place where the matches
are held. This has resulted in enough sporting action taking place on the small
screen, much to the satisfaction of sports fans in Goa.
Ryan D’Souza, a footie fan from Margao, says, “Honestly, I don’t
care much about cricket; football is what interests me. I have no idea how the
IPL teams are stacked up, or who is winning and who is not doing well. I
haven’t been following IPL at all. With regardto Champions League, one of the
shockers of the season was Barcelona getting ousted by Roma. I am really
looking forward to the nail-biting game between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
And given an option, I would love to see a finale face-off between Liverpool
and Real Madrid. Liverpool are the favourites to defeat Roma, especially with
the in-form Mohamed Salah.”
The
2018 edition of Indian Premier League commenced merely over a week ago, with
all the eight teams now having played around four to five matches each. Nikhil
Desai, an ardent fan of cricket and IPL from Panjim, says, “For now, Kolkata,
Hyderabad and Punjab seem to be doing great. The biggest let down has been
Bangalore, especially with such big stalwarts making the team. But the thing
about IPL is that you never know which team might bounce back and steal the
show. All I can say is that the action has just begun and there’s a long way to
go.”
