A ninety-minute affair to remember

Crowds came in hordes, a never before sight, to New Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium for the just-concluded Nehru Cup

NEW DELHI: They were spilling out into the aisles, they were baying at the gates to be let in and the Ambedkar Stadium was a crescendo of sound the moment India got possession.

The football fan is an animal of extreme passion. This is a breed short on patience as befits a game that lasts just 90 minutes - but then it is 90 minutes of raw energy, slamming contact and literal blood and guts.

From Day One the stands were packed but as India began to unfold a brand of football that was a delight in its speed and flex, even the walls around the stadium disappeared under a sea of craning necks supporting throats going hoarse.

The Nehru Cup was ample demonstration for the corporate world that football breathes and lives in the hearts of its followers with a fervour seldom witnessed in any other sport.

Cricket has its fanatics but the expanse of even an ODI is far too much for sustained crowd involvement. Here, however, it is absolutely different. Whenever India played, there was not a minute amongst the ninety when sound was silenced. Heckles and jeers for the outsiders and welcome whoops for our own made football watching an experience like never before in the Capital.

These are good tidings for the sport. For after all where the faithful flock, the corporate dare not be left behind.