Me on The Guardian: About Premier League Fans from India

i made this comment about Indian Premier League Fans – and how you can tell from when they are following football by the team they support. It was published on the Guardian’s Matchday MBM – for the North London Derby [WHICH ARSENAL WON! AWESOME!]

Check 5:01 PM BST – Click Here.

Shom Biswas offers this explanation: “You can understand when the Indian person started watching football, from which club he follows. The cable channels started showing the Premier League in the late 90’s – Arsenal and Man United were the big dogs then. So an Arsenal fan is one who got into Premier League Football in the late 90s. A Chelsea fan is one who started during the early Abramovich days, a Liverpool fan either the old fogey who used to read about the exploits of the Dalglish/Rush days in the newspapers, or the ones who have ‘that night in Istanbul’ as their first football experience, and a Man City fan … well…

 

“Anyone can be a Man United fan, they have been top dogs for long.”

Hindi Commentary

I like Hindi commentary. It’s a lot more ….how should I put it…. raw.

The predictable media-trained image (Sourav – iconoclast; Rahul – meticulous and polite; Shastri – boisterous; Gavaskar – older statesman) is mercifully absent. Sidhu can anyway only play one tune – which does not jar as much in hindi (waah waah mitthu mitthu indeed), Kapil is way too knowledgeable, and sourav too is a lot less predictable.

Ah, Comments!

The article, is the standardfare Sharada Ugra article, about cricket selectors not taking a decisive step. Sensible without being overbearing.

….. but the comments’ section!

Rediff’s comment section, meet Cricinfo’s comment section. Woohoo!