India is a cricket crazy nation as there is a strong fan-following of the Men in Blue. Cricket rules the roost in India, and one has seen, a number of times, other sports taking a backseat due to such kind of popularity.
Such kind of a case was witnessed recently when 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers' game -- India vs Macau -- which was officially set to take place on October 10, had to be postponed for the next day. The reason might be unacceptable in other countries, but the match has been postponed as the India will play host to Australia in the second T20I in Assam.
How did this happen?
What looks even more bizarre is that the football match was set to take place in Bengaluru and the T20 game in Assam. However, it seems that the official broadcasters of both the matches being the same wanted the football match to be pushed to another date. The match timings also might have played an important role, with both cricket and football matches being slated for a 7 pm start.
The broadcasters, Star Sports, who also wrote to the All India Football Federations (AIFF) requesting them to reschedule, had their way as the Asian Football Confederation and the visiting team also seems to have agreed for the new date, October 11.
However, the AIFF's official reason to AFC was quite different. They said that the Sree Kanteerava Stadium was not available, hence asking the match to be shifted to a later date.
"It is a sad state of affairs that an international football match has been pushed back because of the cricket schedule. We can only hope that this does not happen again," Goal quoted a source as saying.
If India manage to beat Macau at home, their chances of qualifying for the Asian Cup increases.
