Never a dull moment

World Cup Football championship is going on in South Africa. Football is the most popular game in the world and has the highest viewership and along with Olympics is the sport with the highest viewership in the world. Football is a simple game in terms of rules of the game and has following all over the world unlike other games like basketball, volley ball and cricket which are of interest to some cluster of countries or the other. Liek Olympics, the build up for World Cup football event in South Africa commenced a month before the event in Indian newspapers. There were write ups about each of the 32 teams participating and there were several articles about how South African administrators were working hard to make it a perfect event. The first set of 48 league matches are over and 16 teams are now battling it out in the knock out stage. From this stage each match has to produce a result and the winning teams advance to quarter finals followed by semi final and final.At each stage the ...

I do not keep track of star footballers in the club championships taking place across Europe. I am ardent follower of World Cup football and what sticks to my mind are the stars of the World Cup. I am aware that as professionals, the leading footballers reserve their best for the clubs and do not fare as well for their countries at the World Cup. It is also possible that unlike club teams where the players are together for years, the national teams assemble only a month before the World Cup and there is little time to build up team cohesion and camaraderie. Ego also stands in the way- I remember World Cup 1994 which Brazil won with Romario and Bebeto as forwards and star performers. There was tremendous rivalry and animosity between them and they never used to talk to each other ! Some of the best games I have savoured were those played by the Brazilian team which won the 2002 World Cup in Japan. The way Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho played in the final was unforgetable. Ronaldinho w...