How Maradonna changed Kozhikkode

Though from Palghat, I have a special place in my heart for Kozhikode (Calicut). The town is commercially vibrant, the city never sleeps, people are friendly, there is something for everyone - music, arts, dance, movies (I saw some classics of the great masters in some film clubs in Kozhikode), literature, intellectual people and football.

Love for football sets the people from Kozhikkode apart from others. They love good football and to say they are passionate about it will be the greatest understatement of the year. They are just plain crazy about it.

The year was 1985. Television had just made its appearance in Kozhikkode with the establishment of a Low Power Transmitter. The only channel available was good old Doordarshan. I was in the first year of my MBA at the University Campus. Being a sportsman myself, I became very close to quite a few of the University Coaches quickly. There was the PE Director Jacob, his Assistant Jeeboy Tharakan, the Volleyball coach and former international Abdul Rehman, the Badminton coach Murali who later went on to become the senior national coach and there was the former national football goal keeper Victor Manjila. We all used to play tennis together for recreation and I learned first hand as to why they represented the nation. Even while playing a sport which is not their favourite, they were all so bloody competitive and wont give an inch on the court. It was a great learning experience.

Anyway back to Football and Kozhikkode. Those days football was played regularly every small and big grounds. In the heart of the city, there is a ground called Mananchira Maidan. All one had to do is to go to the marketplace and whisper to couple of people that there is a good 'panthukali' (meaning ball game as football was called colloquially) in mananchira that day at 4.30 pm. By the time of kickoff, you will have at least 2000 people already on the sidelines to watch the match, irrespective of who was playing. It was amazing. And if someone were to organize a tournament with some good Calcutta Clubs like Mohun Bagan or East Bengal playing, you will have close to 75000 people paying money to watch the match perched atop temporary bamboo stands (these stands were marvels of engineering and it was a miracle that it didn't come crashing down with people jumping and screaming on it). What made watching even the silliest of match enjoyable was the sheer technical knowledge the average fan possessed. It was real fun sitting with them and listening to their cryptic, witty comments. You need to experience it to understand.

Then the TV came and with it the greatest spectacle in the world - The Football World Cup held in Mexico in 1986. We all got to see world class football for the first time. The matches were telecast live from 11.30 in the night till 5.15 in the morning for nearly one month. The town that never slept was totally deserted in the night. If you happen to walk in the city, there was hardly any people on the road. All you could hear will be the rising and falling of the sound of the audience on the TV and the high pitched commentary. It was also the world cup of perhaps the greatest footballer world has seen - Diego Maradonna. Forget about his later day dalliance with drugs and scandals, but in 1986 the little Argentinian was a Magician. He could do with his feet and a football tricks that defied laws of physics. He was a magician, composer, conductor, actor, creator and a sportsman - all in one. I have seen all the World Cups since but the image of Maradonna taking the ball deep in his half against England and dodging 8 English players one after another to score the second goal was and is to me the greatest sporting instance I have seen - and I do passionately watch many sports even today.

Post World Cup, something strange happened. Kozhikkode changed. There were hardly anyone to watch a football match. Matches were held in front of empty stadiums and Mananchira Maidan wore a deserted look. There was jut no one to watch a football match. It was an inexplicable transformation.

Baffled and saddened, I discussed this with Victor Manjila, the football coach. He said, "Raja, that can be explained easily. People were not used to watching quality world class football. This world cup, especially Maradonna, showed up our players for what they are and has taken the game viewership in India to a different plane. What has happened is that the Level of the Audience has raised. Their expectations are higher. They will not be satisfied with the substandard level of football that is being dished out locally and by the Calcuttan teams. Now there is a benchmark which is considerably higher. Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of Kozhikkode people's love affair with local football and it will be a tragedy".

Well it has never been the same in Kozhikkode since. This concept of level of audience being raised is true of many other fields. We are not satisfied with what we were getting as we are exposed to international products and services through satellite television and Internet. We have greater expectations regarding education, automobiles, consumer gadgets, fashion, jobs. In short the customer is more informed and this has resulted in the world moving from a sellers market to a buyers market.