Nothing you didn't know

It's that time of the year. There's not much football on and life is well, not boring but then there are time slots on weekends that need to be addressed. Since doing something constructive with my free time does not come naturally to me, hours and hours are spent reading things of very little importance on the internet. Thankfully I have a job now, which takes up my time during the week. 

Image Courtesy: Vetty Pictures

It's a time for reflection, especially since I'm an Arsenal fan. Think of how things could have turned out last season, how things could turn out next season and how things could turn out in the season after next when the next one doesn't go to plan. This is also a time when I get excited about any shred of transfer talk related to the club. First I read an article, then try to find at least three or four more to try and validate whether the first one was pure garbage (which it is nine times out of ten) and then think why I read it in the first place. When I'm tired of doing that, thoughts go to the upcoming season and a renewed, over optimistic sense of hope sweeps across me before it all comes to a grinding halt. That's when I suddenly remember that what I'm going to witnessing at the end of July will be a bunch of unheard of players with un-pronounceable names taking to the Emirates pitch for the Emirates cup wearing the Emirates, sorry Arsenal jersey, playing to rules that increase our chances of winning, then winning and finally pledging that THIS is going to be THE season.

What made you support your chosen club?

I come from a country where cricket is a religion. Oh wait, there is another way to say it now. I come from THE country whose cricket team are currently the World Champions. While cricket has been, still is and will be a big part of my life, I consider myself a bigger football fan than cricket fan. To be more specific I'm an Arsenal fan (those few souls who read this blog probably know by now). Until a few years ago, a lot of my friends looked at me like I was an alien when I said I supported a club team which I was in no way associated with geographically or otherwise. As the years rolled by a lot of the very same people are as passionate about their own chosen football club team.

My fascination for Arsenal started with the advent of cable television at home (I say home because it was only a few years after cable television entered India, before it became a standard norm in many Indian households like mine) and the fact that Arsenal were there or thereabouts when it came to winning championships. The English league was the most televised at the time (it still is) and I developed a taste for it, as I already had a deep inclination towards sports.

It's IPL time again.... Yawn

The latest installment of the IPL is a week old as I write this, and we Indians haven't even had the time to gloat over a famous World Cup win. I have yet to watch a full game and the credit (of course I'm being sarcastic) goes to some of our favorite commentators, all back after being rested for the World Cup. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan says, "Oh yes! Happy to be back. Had to keep myself fit for this one. That's why I opted out of the World Cup sponsored by Money Gram International, Reliance Communications, Castrol, ESPN Star ....... ",  all this hoping that at least a few of the brands would pay him a few Rupees for mentioning their names on live television. It's hard enough for cricket fans, having to many times miss the first and last ball of an over because of a commercial break and now we have these dimwits at the mercy of advertisers playing out the audio versions of the commercials almost every alternate ball. LS can be excused because that's probably as close as he'll get to featuring in a TV commercial.