Do we need artificial football pitches in India?

All you need to know about artificial football pitches is in the shared Guardian article.

I am trying to analyse this in the Indian context.

I have always been circumspect about the proliferation of art-pitches in Indian football stadiums. This drive saw a decent grass pitch in the Bangalore football stadium being replaced with a art-pitch. I was surprised, because the Bangalore football stadium pitch was a decent enough pitch by Indian standards. 

I am not a big fan of art-pitches in football, but i think it is time we ponder upon this. The opinion differs from people to people. Stadiums across the world have installed art-pitches even though it is not very popular in U.K. Playing on a grass pitch offers a zizekian type of mental satisfaction but the serious impacts on environment, especially in summer, to maintain a grass pitch should motivate us to think the other way. 

Grass pitches need good maintenance. It would be absolutely difficult in Indian conditions to maintain a perfect grass football pitch. Considering that most football stadiums are owned by the local municipal/corporation authorities, when summer hits and drought sets in, watering and maintaining a football pitch would be the last thing on their mind.

Pitches also effect the pace of a football match. There is a considerable difference in the pace of a football match in i-league, when it is played on an artificial pitch. The wobbly, patchy grass pitches tend to cut out the fluidity of movement. As broadcast is the main source of money for any football league, a match played on a wobbly surface will be utterly boring. Turn on Tenaction + and watch an I-league match played in the Salt Lake Stadium and you will understand what i am trying to say.

On a short term, artificial pitches could prove a great deal in developing football in India. It will offer a great playing surface where kids can replicate their skills to perfection that they learn from Television and Youtube. Good pitches will also make I-league matches more "visually appealing". When football associations start owning stadiums, we can think of grass pitches.

Peasant revolt in the 6th century AD

I have been eagerly reading up a book by the eminent historian R.S.Sharma called India's Ancient Past. I may write down a review of the book and the reason why i picked up R.S.Sharma's book to know about India's ancient past at a later point of time. However, that is not the point of this post. While reading up the chapters on South India, i came across this interesting section called The Kalabhra Revolt.

R.S.Sharma says that Kalabhras are a tribe that overthrew the once powerful Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas of the South India, somewhere in the 6th century AD. The interesting aspect of their ascendancy to power was that it was not a traditional conquest, but more of a peasant revolt against the existing social order. He also says that this tribe had the patronage of the Buddhists, as that was a flourishing religion in the south at that time.

As a radical force that waged war against the existing social order, probably Kalabhras set the tone of the Dravidian fight against the Brahminical order, which is still thriving in the Tamil political landscape. Typical of the popular culture, this period in South Indian history is called the dark ages.

The land grants offered by the rulers greatly helped some sections of the society and the peasants, who were an integral part of the economy were marginalized by this unequal distribution of land. Sharma emphasizes that the ascendancy of Kalabhras and their 75 odd years of rule was forced out of the injustice meted out by the rulers at that time.

It is also interesting that the vestiges of the rulers ousted by the Kalabhras joined forces to oust them from power. The Chalukya's of Badami, the left over Pandyas and Pallavas fought together to bring an end to the so called evil empire of the Kalabhras.

This juncture in history is so important and fascinating because it shows that injustice meted out to people wont last long and the general populace will fight the tyranny at some point. It is also notable that not much of written evidence exists of this period. Kalabhras being a revolutionary state did not have much time to pen down their achievements, but were mostly tied up resisting the overtures of the rulers they dethroned trying to return back to power.

On celebrity cricket league

Celebrity Cricket League is on full swing at the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium in Kaloor. Fat cats in the Malayalam film industry is playing cricket against their peers in other south Indian film industries and Bollywood. The little known fact of the Celebrity Cricket League is that they used their influence and rescheduled the I-league football match that was supposed to happen in the stadium.

This got me seething and i wasted no time to write down a few words about this fiasco on Sportskeeda.com. You can read the same here.

Waiting for Africa Cup of Nations

I am eagerly waiting for the Africa Cup of Nations. Once again its a chance to feast upon some superb football journalism from Guardian.co.uk. In the past too, they have come up great articles from during ACN.

This article here is about Demba ba and the Senegal team. Senegal thronged in the international scene with a massive upset victory over France in the 2002 world cup. But that team went astray, they never could reach anywhere close to that level.

This time around Senegal seems to be a formidable contender for the African title and the charge is led by Demba Ba who is the second top scorer in the English Premier league with 15 goals. Demba Ba is not alone, there seems to be a host of Senegalese forwards who are doing really well across various leagues.

Hopefully Guardian continues their good from Gabon and Equitorial Guinea come this month end.

SAFF Championship 2011

The SAFF cup 2011 concluded in New Delhi and India were crowned champions for the nth time again. I think we have been winning this competition for years now.  

I could not watch all the group matches but did catch up with some highlights on TV and from the internet.  Speaking of the internet, I should mention that I was pleasantly surprised to see SAFF Championship 2011 channel on youtube. Don’t know who was running it, but whoever it was, kudos to them. 

On the whole it looked like a decently conducted tournament. Due credits to AIFF for arranging the tournament.

Now on to the final. India played a very decent Afghanistan team. AFC had already goofed up by selecting an Indian origin referee for the final. They definitely had other options in front of them and why did they select the Sikh ref from Singapore can only be explained by them.

During the first half, Afghanistan played really well. They did have some good chances which they failed to convert, partly due to their mistake and as Indian goalkeeper karanjit was having a good day on the field.

Second half lumbered on and India was putting up a better show this time around.  Then in the 63^rd minute Sayed Rahim Nabi played a ball in to the box and Jeje was tripped in the box. In the ensuing melee, some Afghanistan players almost manhandled the referee and the referee dished out a red card to the Afghani goal keeper. 

There are also some sections who claim that Jeje was fouled outside the penalty box. I have rerun the video so many times and I am convinced, if it is a foul it happened in the box. 

If you watch EPL on tv, you will be familiar with this saying “we have seen this given” and that is exactly what happened. A penalty was awarded and Afghanistan was reduced to ten men. India took the numerical advantage and killed the game by slotting in another three more goals and lifted the cup. 

 I was not at all enthused at the way things turned out in the final. AFC could have selected another referee for the match and could have avoided all the allegations from the Afghani contingent.

Check out goal.com' review of Indian players who appeared in the championship here. I more or less agree with what they have written there.  

I'm back.

Wordpress.com took the gas for a while. I am planning to get back here. Probably with a new name and a new design.

Shunting Arena!!

Let me make it official.. I am shifting out of blogspot. Moving on.. you can catch up my posts at http://tushizap.wordpress.com