of sports and women

Hey..

So what is with sports and women ? I mean, why cant they relate to sports in general and every sport in particular ? Not only dont they try to understand, but they also have a certain distaste, aversion, pet peeve, hate, dislike and every other possible such adjective towards games and sports. Before I continue, let me clarify that the women in this post actually refers more to Indian/Desi women, though I am sure what I have stated is more or less applicable to the female gender in the Universe.

Are games that hard to understand ? I mean, no one expect the woman to play but to just sit through, watch and maybe cheer. The lady of this generation studies rocket sciences, does complicated arithmetic calculations, cuts code in 10th generation programming languages, cooks multi-cuisine with equal ease, drives rashly on the road making even Montoya bow his head in shame, manages work and home intelligently - so it is very surprising when she shakes her head in despair and announces that she cannot follow games & sports !!!

How complex can cricket be ? Every Indian has the sport in his blood, isn't it not ? I have always thought the almighty creator injects cricket DNA to Indians, basketball to Americans, Soccer to the Brazilians and the like ? But maybe he does the injecting to the male species. Coming back to cricket, how complex is the sport, really ? Every street corner in India witnesses kids playing cricket. Anything round is considered a ball; a strong stick turns into a bat; and the wall or a lamp-post or a fence is the wicket - and the sport begins and can run into hours. There are even crazy gangs that can play a virtual-cricket using page numbered textbooks. Breaking glass panes, diverting the poor motorists off the road, hitting the neighbor's scooter, pulling off the last page of The Hindu - all this is a package of growing up with cricket. And women cant understand our passion for the game ?

The other side of this is also dangerous. When the womenfolk do watch cricket or any other sport, they watch it for all the wrong reasons. "Sourav is too hot ya", or, "Oh God. Agassi, aww, wow, huh, (sigh) " - censorable dialogues follow through and they admire the sportsman, sometimes not even knowing what sport he plays. When we are around such women, I wont be surprised if we feel gay watching male sports !

The Indian televisions tried to market the cricketing sport to the ladies by making the hot Mandira Bedi as a program anchor. Well, the audience & popularity sure increased, with a double whammy as we watch Sachin hit a sixer followed by a blondie-kinda yapping from Mandira. Now the cheerleader concept needs to come to cricketing sport and it is like a dream ! Anyways, the Bharatiya Naris who watched Mandira worried about her dresses, the earrings, the short sleeves etc and accused the passionate sporting fans of watching her and not the game....

Of course, women tennis, ladies soccer, girls rowing - are all watched more by men. And again, this is because of the taste for the sport than anything else, though the maledom is again looked at with suspicion. Same is when we hook up the TV to follow NBA or NFL - for Godssake, they dont show the cheerleaders for more than 5 minutes of the 3 hour game ! The women have reason to hate every sport - Cricket is a waste of time; NBA is a late evening crime; Football is rough; Sumo is nauseating; WWF is ridiculous; Women tennis is a F-TV show; Racing causes ear-ache; Golf is boring .... the list is endless!!!!!

So my friends, there is something with the women and sports. Something repelling. Something dead against. Maybe women think of sports as their mother-in-laws. You can love them both, but you cant make them love each other. And if you did attempt that, within minutes you would realize that your love for either of them will drop down heavily. And you wish you ran 2 separate lives that don't run into each other.

Ciao..