Posted:
I know its a long time since FIFA world cup 06 is over...but I was just doing a search on Priya Wal n came across this article.....so thought of posting it 😛...hope its not posted b4
The whole world is caught up in the football frenzy with Brazil becoming the hot favourite. Who are our TV stars betting on in the biggest sporting extravaganza... (202 countries are watching the FIFA World Cup '06)While everybody wants Brazil to retain the trophy, some like Chetan Hansraj and Natasha Rana ( Pam Mallya of Kesar) expect other strong teams like hosts Germany or England, Argentina and Italy to at least give a good fight to the current world champions. Channel [V] VJ Archana hopes that emerging teams like Croatia, Ivory Coast, South Korea and Sweden will also put up a good show and at least reach the second round, if not the quarters. Most stars do not get time to watch the game as they normally are shooting for twelve hours at a stretch. Ritturaj , an avid football fan, rues the fact that he has not been able to pay as much attention as he would like to the game. Chetan is lucky in this sense as he has taken some days off. Most other stars use the TV in the studio to keep abreast of the latest scores. Hiten Paintal stays up late at night to watch Brazil whenever they play. Archana is hoping that the coming matches will provide some sparks "The encounters so far have really been lacklustre, with no hard emotions, no surprises (expect Socceroos Australia stunning Japan by those three late goals). Hiten too was disappointed by the poor performance of England in its opening match against Paraguay: "They only won the opponent by one goal". The presence of great stars like Ronaldo and Ronaldinho (World no.1 football player) really gives Brazil the edge, feels Priya Wal of Remix. She hopes to watch all of Brazil's matches, for they "really show magic on the turf". After the Brazilian stars, if there is any other single player to arouse worldwide attention, it has to be the English metro- sexual hottie David Beckham. While the guys like him for his football sorcery, the girls just drool over his drop-dead good looks. Posh(Victoria Beckham) is so lucky to have David as a husband, gushes Priya. Although Ronaldinho is not your conventional good looker, his sheer dribbling of the ball makes the girls go gaga over him, says Archana. Besides these two favourites, Aman Verma lists Roberto Carlos( Brazil) and Zinedine Zidane as other hot players to watch out for during this tournament. Natasha points out that it is wrong to say that girls watch football only for the players' looks. "We are equally if not more crazy for football than the guys," she proclaims. She agrees that there are some girls who are fida over hunk footballers, but then aren't many guys head over heels in love with Sania, when they don't even know what a set means. "It cuts both ways," she argues. If some girls watch football for the players ,there are guys who stay up late at night not to watch Brazil clash with England, but to check out those bikini-clad samba and barmy army woman. Iqbal(Angad) who himself played centre-forward during school and college believes that the sheer pace of the game and the excitement those crucial 90 minutes generate makes soccer such a great sport. "What's more, the game really helps to build character as one learns the importance of team spirit," he extolls. Despite the massive media- hype this World Cup is generating, no celeb believes that football (India FIFA ranking is 117) will ever replace cricket. Every country has its own chosen sport, cricket is ours, avers Priya. Natasha, who lost interest in cricket after India lost the World Cup, hopes that soccer will at least take away some sheen from our national (cricketing) heroes who seem to pay more attention to shooting ads then their game. "The vacuum will be filled with up by emerging talent like Baichung Bhutia," she states. Aman also supports the above thesis by saying that leaving out Bengal, Kerala and the north-east, there is little chance of soccer ever replacing cricket as the lead sport of India. However the lone dissenter here is Hiten Paintal who plays devil's advocate by saying that cricket is overrated in this country. "I am of the firm view that with massive media coverage, slowly youngsters will start taking to the game and may be 20-25 years down the road, India might even qualify for the finals," he says hopefully.
It's not as if this football craze has smitten all our TV celebs. There are some stars like Kishwar(her only knowledge of football is how hot David Beckham looks ) and Pooja Bedi, who does not like football. "My paper ends when the sports pages begun," she shrugs.
