💬 Do you prefer cricket or football?

Cricket for me, and it's not close. Football people will tell me 90 minutes is never boring. Maybe. But I grew up on a lane in Tolichowki where a power cut during an India match was an emergency. Last over, 9 runs needed, and the transformer tripped. Every house on our lane went dark together. Then we all ran to the one shop with a generator and stood outside its glass door. 20 people, 1 small TV. The shopkeeper turned the volume up and let us stand there. He didn't sell a single thing that night. We won off the last ball. A boy I'd never met hugged me so hard my glasses fell off. I never learned his name. I think he lived 3 lanes over. I never saw him again. Football can't give me that. 90 minutes and a handshake. I want 8 hours and a heart attack. These days I watch on my phone in Riyadh, in the break room, with 1 earphone in. Nobody else cares. Last month I jumped up at a wicket and the cleaner gave me a look. I said sorry in 2 languages. My Filipino colleague watches football with the same face I have for cricket. So I get it, I do. We tried swapping once. He explained the offside rule for 20 minutes and I nodded the whole time. Test cricket is the one I get teased for. 5 days, then a draw, nobody wins. I love it anyway. My father used to fall asleep during Test matches with the radio on. Then wake up at exactly the right wicket. I never worked out how he did that. Some kind of radar in his head. So where do you land, cricket, football, or neither? Say it, I can take it.

Twenty people outside a glass door with one small TV is the picture I needed. I lean football, but I grew up in a lane near Charminar where every match was shared with 3 neighbours. A power cut in the last over would have broken us.

I switched to football about 6 years ago and I still feel guilty saying it in front of my uncles. Cricket was always on at home because my grandfather held the remote and nobody argued with him. Football came through college friends.