One of the main causes of football’s underappreciation in India is the country’s unrivalled cricket popularity. India is a country that eats, sleep, and breathes cricket; cricket is revered as a religion, and cricketers are revered as gods. The Indian cricket team has had a lot of success over the years and is regarded as one of the greatest in the world, having won two World Cups (1983 and 2011). The Indian football team, on the other hand, last achieved considerable success in the 1962 Asian Games, when it won a gold medal. When the two stories are compared, they are opposed.
The former is a rags-to-riches story, whereas the latter is the polar opposite. Popularity in sports is usually inversely related to the amount of success attained. The reason why clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United have a massive fan following all over the world. The Indian football squad has failed to pique the public’s interest throughout time as a result of its consistent failure, which cannot be refuted. The quality of football played in India is subpar, thus alienating the general public. Lack of financing and inadequate infrastructure have also hampered the cause.
However, the introduction of cable television in the mid-1990s sparked a resurgence in interest in the sport, with Indian spectators becoming familiar with the high-octane football of foreign leagues such as the English Premier League. In India, football is currently watched by 80 million people. While games like East Bengal vs. Mohun Bagan are immensely popular in their respective regions, they do not draw large crowds on a national level. The reasons for this are poor football quality, viewers preferring the flair and excellence of an El Classico, a Manchester Derby, or even a Merseyside Derby, and viewers not being able to relate to the very essence of the rivalry-‘The Bangal and Ghoti divide,’ which only Bengalis can relate to (Bangals are people who came from Bangladesh after partition and Ghotis are the actual inhabitants of West Bengal).
The climate is another reason why cricket is preferred over football in the country. In India, the climatic circumstances make it incredibly difficult for a sportsperson to play a game like football for 90 minutes, which is physically more demanding than most sports. Cricket, on the other hand, does not necessitate any special equipment.
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