The answer to this question is an emphatic 'no'. Football is no where near to cricket in Indian in terms popularity. However, it seems that football is gaining on cricket in terms of TV ratings. I found this in the website of The Hindu:
"The opening match between Germany and Costa Rica on June 9 garnered a TV rating of 3.43 whereas the Test match could manage a TVR of just 2.8, ESPN-Star Sports claimed."
What is so fascinating about the news is that World Cup Football 2006 is attracting viewers from all over India. In India, West Bengal, Kerala and Goa are states in which football is perhaps more popular than cricket.
I am happy with this news but the above TV rating does not convince me because India was playing a match against West Indies in West Indies and the match place at night time in India. If it was an Indian-Pakistan match then I would surely get excited that football is on the way of overtaking cricket in India. I just wish that FIFA plans something special for India. A market of 1 billion people is just too big to let it go.
Don’t you think so?
Hey mate - this is a nice story - please think about cross posting at www.globalfutbol.com - it is easy and only takes a minute to register just click to your right under the menu, sign in - you'll be sent a confirming email - click and you are done! Then you can post the story as a diary - and of course put a link in the diary to your own site.
Posted by: ronnie | June 22, 2006 7:00 AM | Permalink to Comment