The Hindu : World Cup a mass hysteria in Malappuram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

World Cup a mass hysteria in Malappuram

By K.P.M. Basheer

MALAPPURAM June 17. When Argentina was kicked out of the World Cup tournament last week, it was as if a rowdy asteroid had struck this soccer-crazy district whose most-favoured team was Gabriel Batistuta's.

Tens of thousands of people mourned the premature `death' of the team, hundreds openly wept and dozens of men paid for the Argentinean defeat with their hair and moustache. Argentinean flags which had been fluttering in towns and village squares from well before the start of the World Cup vanished overnight. Huge cutouts of Argentina's star striker Batistuta came crashing down. Posters and banners praising the team were torn apart.

``I lost interest in the World Cup after Argentina lost,'' a 60-year-old man, sipping his morning tea in a local tea shop near Tirur, told The Hindu. ``Inte manam chathu, kuttiye...'' (My heart

broke, man). As he reads aloud, in faltering Malayalam, the World Cup reports, he also offers his brilliant comments which could be the envy of football commentators on Ten Sports.

Tea finished, he joins a small band of elderly men who wear the typical Malappuram Muslim turbans and gray beards, in a heated debate on the winning chances of Italy, England, Brazil, Spain, Senegal and Germany. They toss around the tongue-twisting Latin American and European names as if they were the boys on the local sevens football team. The performances of Brazil's Ronaldo, Paraguay's Carlos Gamarra, Germany's Oliver Neuville (names often mispronounced out of recognition) come up for dissection.

The elders also recall the ball magic of their old heroes Pele and Beckenbauer and compare their styles with the new heroes. They talk longingly of the football commentators on the radio a generation back. (Back then, radio commentators were as popular as the football stars.) One recalls how an old commentator used to make the listeners feel the heat of the annual Sait Nagji Amersi Football Tournament, held at Kozhikode, with his hair-raising commentary.

These elderly men, who remind you of Hemingway's old man obsessed with baseball (The Old Man and the Sea), is a slice of Malappuram district's football mania. You can feel and touch the World Cup tournament, though held half a world away in Korea-Japan, in Malappuram's towns and villages. Colourful flags of key nations taking part in the tournament fly on treetops, buildings and from ropes tied across streets in most towns. Posters and flyers of important teams adore wayside billboards.

The numerous fans clubs display their ware on the walls, tree trunks and wherever space is available. (France Fans Clubs and Zainudheen (Zinadine) Zidane Clubs bowed out the day the defending champions crashed out of the World Cup.) Young men, mostly unemployed and undereducated, discuss the day's play at streetside talk shows.

But the real football craze has to be seen at the innumerable public TV viewing sessions, courtesy local restaurants and shops, arranged in small towns and bazaars. These viewing sessions are, using a Maoist phrase, real `celebration of the masses'. Scores of people mill around the TV sets. As the game progresses, their hysteria builds up and demonic shrieks of excitement rent the air. The viewers take sides, bet on their favourites and sometimes heated argument follows. There have been instances of street brawls and duels.

Curiously, for all the excitement and talk of football, the game is gradually exiting from the district which has long been the home of sevens football. The younger generations love to watch the game on the TV rather than play it out on the grounds. The district used to have hundreds of local-level teams which produced fine players. Areakode, Mampad, Perinthalmanna and Manjeri were known for their football teams and players. But, no longer.

One major reason for the decline is said to be the Gulf boom. Hundreds of players, even before they could bloom, migrated to the Gulf in search of jobs, leaving their teams crippled. The decline of rice cultivation hit football badly. In most villages, the post-harvest paddyfields in summer had doubled as playgrounds. With the vanishing of paddyfields, the playgrounds were lost too. There are hardly any free open spaces in the villages now.

The `Arts and Sports Clubs', a rural phenomenon of Kerala, used to foster football teams and host tournaments. But, as lifestyles changed and urbanisation conquered the villages, most of these clubs died out. Yet another reason for the decline is said to be the mushrooming of English-medium schools. The Malayalam-medium Government schools, which left plenty of free time with the children, provided waves of new generations of players.

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World Cup a mass hysteria in Malappuram