Friday, June 11, 2010

WAKA WAKA


With this new theme, the football world cup starts again in South Africa, a country that has played host to many major sporting championships in the past years with the IPL, the T20 world cup and now Football. Being the first African nation to host this event, South Africa has already carved its way into history.

Personally, I admire south Africa for being the most “modern” of all African nations, with its fight against apartheid, its amalgamated society of blacks and whites(although more whites and less blacks) and its development, its economy, tourism and each and every aspect. It deserves to be the host.

Coming back to football, I can say I am a fraud football fan. The sight of the ball does NOT get my head rushing, the scene of utter chaos on the field makes no sense to me and the game does not get my adrenaline jumping. The only reason I make an effort to follow football is purely because I am curious about it.

A game with an assortment of fifteen players in a team and one lone ball garners so much attention that the world stands still during any major championship. World cup might be for national pride but I don’t understand the concept of football clubs and football crazy fans. Regional fans, I can digest but people from non-football playing nations like India become so crazy about these clubs that they worship the players, cry at the team’s loss, revel in the other team’s misery. It all beats me.

Maybe it has an anthropological answer. Maybe this rush of adrenaline, knowing that you BELONG to a team, momentarily forgetting everything and just focusing on those 90 minutes of the game, this wild obsession, it all has a meaning and in its own makes sense.

As the world cup starts today, statistically a million fans will be out there, in one moment, cheering on their teams.

Something just bring the world closer.

Waka! Waka!

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