Football vs. cricket
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
WE live on Indira Road and we have a field here, the T&T field, where all kinds of people gather when nothing is happening. In fact, some commercial fairs are also held here which not many local residents like because it denies their children a playground.
Here, from kids to grown-ups, the local residents (although some are not) engage in some form of sports or another. This is also the practice field for various teams. However, by far the most popular competitive sports that people take part here is cricket.
The most recent tournament was 20-20 cricket in which a number of teams participated and which was played under floodlights. Well, not real floodlights perhaps but an arrangement that no one was complaining about.
The entire place was packed with spectators and on all sides. I watched it off and on, specially the final in which the team from Rajabazar took the championship.
The recent football tournament at the national level was a commendable effort to popularise football and bring it at par with cricket in terms of public interest but I shall narrate one incident during the 20-20 night cricket at the T&T field which should indicate how far ahead cricket is than any other sports.
As I watched from the Manik Miah Avenue side, a rickshaw-puller standing on his rickshaw commented dryly after a batsman had peppered the boundary with some handsome shots: "Sir, it is a small boundary so the runs will come!" After a while he added when the bowler erred: "You can't give away 2-3 extras an over in a 20-20 match!"
Yes, that's how much they know about the game even at that level!
Harun-as-Rashid
Indira Road, Dhaka
Here, from kids to grown-ups, the local residents (although some are not) engage in some form of sports or another. This is also the practice field for various teams. However, by far the most popular competitive sports that people take part here is cricket.
The most recent tournament was 20-20 cricket in which a number of teams participated and which was played under floodlights. Well, not real floodlights perhaps but an arrangement that no one was complaining about.
The entire place was packed with spectators and on all sides. I watched it off and on, specially the final in which the team from Rajabazar took the championship.
The recent football tournament at the national level was a commendable effort to popularise football and bring it at par with cricket in terms of public interest but I shall narrate one incident during the 20-20 night cricket at the T&T field which should indicate how far ahead cricket is than any other sports.
As I watched from the Manik Miah Avenue side, a rickshaw-puller standing on his rickshaw commented dryly after a batsman had peppered the boundary with some handsome shots: "Sir, it is a small boundary so the runs will come!" After a while he added when the bowler erred: "You can't give away 2-3 extras an over in a 20-20 match!"
Yes, that's how much they know about the game even at that level!
Harun-as-Rashid
Indira Road, Dhaka