On the day of Santosh Trophy Football final, I was frantically switching from one sports channel to another in the hope of finding at least one with live telecast, but alas, there were none. News channels were giving only live updates, but not the live telecast. As a last resort, I tried Doordarshan, but the channel was showing highlights of some insignificant game that was played somewhere, sometime in the past.
Time and again, cricket has been blamed for underdevelopment of football in India. The Santosh Trophy experience that I had the other day made one thing clear: we have no right to blame cricket. Cricket flourishes because its fans love the game. And, its organisers promote the game by catering to the fans' needs, by giving whatever they long for. Even the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament is telecast live. There is no one to provide such service to football fans in India.
For the thousands of football fans in the country, Santosh Trophy is the World Cup Football of India. Still, no television channel was prepared to telecast the tournament live.
I watched the Santosh Trophy final through my son’s Facebook page. I have not seen this kind of zest and spirited competition even in the Indian Super League (ISL) matches, but unfortunately, I could not enjoy the game. Because of video-buffering, I had to be content with watching the replay of even critical moments of the match. When the video stopped at the decisive tiebreaker, I felt like smashing the mobile phone.
Why this plight for the Santosh Trophy and Federation Cup football tournaments when we have a system in place to telecast even kabadi tournaments live? Is someone in India bent on not letting anyone enjoy watching football? Or, is it that only the ISL needs to flourish?
The organisers of the ISL know how to market the ISL matches. If anyone thinks that the ISL alone can make India's football World Cup dreams come true, that's nothing but a mirage. In order to participate in the World Cup, the Santosh Trophy and Federation Cup tournaments must be organised well.
The possible argument that Santosh Trophy was not telecast live because there would be few spectators does not hold water. This argument will never go down well with those who love football.
(The column was originally published in Malayala Manorama)