WHAT a great week for sports nostalgia. Football in the snow in Europe, Pakistan lose a Test match as only they can and the England cricket team further perfect the art of claiming a draw as victory.
Yet for me, the story of the week has been the sad events unfolding in Angola. The African Cup of Nations is an excellent tournament, full of passion, entertainment and meaning. It’s also an event that happens in locations a world apart from the millionaire lifestyles of many of the players.
There can be few starker contrasts than that presented this week by Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor, poster boy for the worlds richest football club and yet one of the Togo team shot at in a crisis torn area of Angola.
In retrospect it looks a strange decision to host Africa’s showpiece in such a location, but it seems to be the case that a country’s desire to hold an international sporting event is inversely proportional to their ability to actually do so.
It shows credit to those international football stars – Essien, Adebayor, Kalou and co, that they resisted the pressures of their Premier League managers and all went back to Africa for a tournament that matters in their own countries. In money terms, I guess the equivalent is an IPL player deciding to go back for an Australian domestic cricket event, but that’s probably a little flattering to Australian cricket.
The African nations event is televised around the world, but not in India, which is a shame. As all Indian sports broadcasters feel the pinch of a tough year, there seems an increasing list of quality sports events that are failing to reach the Indian viewer.
However, one of the stories only available to the Indian viewer last week was the success of Shillong Lajong at football’s Hero Honda Federation Cup. For this side from the North-East to beat I-league champions Churchill Brothers and only lose the final on penalties was another heartwarming story to end their best ever year.
I visibly wince whenever yet another “expert” says to me that Indian football fans only come from 3 hotbeds (Goa, Bengal, Kerala). Football is clearly dominant in the North-East and you find football fans everywhere these days. Talking to the Zee football crew, who’ve been filming this I-league season, they say they’ve seen real progress for Indian football in the last 12 months.
Congratulations too for the organisers of the ATP Chennai Open, which continues to live up to its high international reputation and give Indian tennis a standard to be proud of.
