What’s Ailing Women Football?

FIFA estimates that more than 750 Million television viewers watched at least 60 seconds of action during the 2015 Women World Cup in Canada. The final between the US and Japan was the most watched soccer match in US Television history with 25.4 Million tuning in. The tournament also broke television viewing records in Canada, France, Japan, Australia, Brazil, China, South Korea and Norway for Women Football.

Women Football is heavily reliant on the spectacle of international tournaments to widen its popularity. The struggle has been to sustain that interest and make it bleed into Women Club Football. Women World Cup fall in the “in between” years, when there is no men’s World Cup or European Championship, which makes it ripe for strong television viewing and attendance figures.

In the US, soccer is more readily accepted as women’s sport. The sport history is not shrouded in the same patriarchal cultural baggage as it is in much of Europe. In recent years, other nations have risen to challenge the US dominance such as Japan and Germany. Lately, teams such as France and England have developed pleasingly while the Brazilian national side is no longer just 10 girls and Marta. The international picture is panning out to be more competitive, which will only serve to generate more interest.

One must be careful not to compare women’s football with top level men’s football. Women’s Football is played in a different style, for a start. But the concept of women’s football is still in its infancy. In England, women were banned from organizing themselves professionally in football until the 1970s. Women Football is bridging a gap of around 100 years of development compared to the men’s game. The tectonic plates of the domestic game in women’s football continue to collide. With the suffocating coverage of men’s football and the rolling soap opera of La Liga, the Premier League and the Champions League the women leagues struggle to be noticed.

India women national side holds a higher FIFA ranking than their male counterparts. It remains a mystery that such a populous country with a consuming passion for football continues to have such an uninspiring participative legacy. The Indian Super League was founded in 2013 with the ultimate aim of creating a flourishing domestic football scene. The women’s game in this sprawling nation requires a similar notion to put itself on the emerging map of women’s football.

Match Fixing: Horse Race to Tennis

Section 115BB of the Indian Income Tax Act spells out the “tax on winnings from lotteries, crossword puzzles, and races including horse races, card games and other games of any sort or gambling or betting of any form or nature whatsoever”. That is, if one bet and win, one must pay his taxes. The money we make from betting on Horses or anything is taxable.

The existence of this section suggests that such money is above board and legal. But here is the kicker horse racing is the only sport in which betting is legal, there are licensed bookmarkers who will take our bets on any given race. If one must declare winnings from betting of any form as income and pay tax on it, why is only such form of betting legal? To me, making horse racing the only sport that one can legally bet on is as entirely lacking of sense.

But all this has been on my mind because of the latest uproar over betting in sport. The recent news that matches fixing has happened in professional Tennis for years, and even in Grand Slam tournaments. Without naming anyone, it was reported that “28 top level players, including winners of Grand Slam Titles”, have been involved in Match Fixing, that the tennis establishment has known this and yet not acted against these players.

Until now, the only instance of match fixing alleged in pro tennis was in 2007, when World No 4 Nikolay Davydenko played a much lower ranked Argentine, Martin Vassallo in a match in Poland. Out of the blue, huge amount of money were placed on Martin victory, even as Nikolay opened up a comfortable lead in the match. Later, Nikolay claimed an injury to his foot and forfeited the match.

We also knew well that people bet on horse races and cricket and archery and every other sport on the planet and that there are inevitably, inexorably, attempts to influence the outcomes of those games. Whatever the explanation, the inescapable truth about sports is that people will bet on matches and attempt fixes.

Book Review: What the Dog Saw

Finished reading “What the dog saw” and in this brilliant & provocative book, covering everything from criminology to ketchup, job interviews to dog training, Malcolm Gladwell shows the most ordinary subjects can illuminate the most extraordinary things about us and our world. Looking under the surface of the seemingly mundane, he explores the underdogs, the miraculous and disastrous and reveals how everyone and everything contains an incredible story.

This book is a series of 19 short stories that each addresses a different question or issue. What’s the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there tons of varieties of mustard but only one type of ketchup? It turns out that different people like different levels of sweetness and bitterness, so we see twelve varieties of marinara sauce on the supermarket shelf, and another dozen flavors of soft drinks on the market.

How do you know whom to hire? Does intelligence really matter once you get away from college? What does hair dye have to do with Feminism? He talks about what makes a good salesman. It’s not just the ability to ask for the money. There needs to be an engaging, interesting presentation that draws the audience in. Gladwell discusses the difference between mystery and puzzle, and between the two types of serial killers. He keeps readers on their toes with unlikely comparisons and his unique points of view.

Another story takes a look at the homelessness problem, and we discover how one homeless man cost his city over one million dollars. How can a group of sane people get admitted to mental hospitals, and kept there for weeks even though their symptoms have subsided? And what does that have to do with gathering intelligence? Was Picasso a genius, a late bloomer or neither? What makes someone good at something, and what do they become recognized as great? Gladwell answers all these questions and more in his book.

My First International Olympic Duathlon

7^th February 2016, I participated in my first Olympic Duathlon and started practicing for it. It’s a competition that is composed of running and biking. The format for a Duathlon is run-bike-run. It was 5 km run, 40 km cycling and 10 km run. I nailed it in 3 hrs. 15 min (approx.) I was very excited for this event. After long days of practice and strict Diet, I completed Olympic Duathlon within a committed time to myself. 

My favorite quote in life is – “The moment you stop accepting challenges, is the moment you stop moving forward. Keep Moving”. This is what keeps me moving in life. It was the motivation for me throughout this event. Getting up early in the morning for pedaling & running few miles, and then focus on work wasn’t easy as I thought would be. But after this event I got to know few things about me. I need to practice running and exercise regularly especially before an event like Duathlon/Triathlon.

The event started with Run: 5 Km. One loop outside of stadium went well. I started with good pace and finished a loop inside the stadium. Cycle: 40 Km. Four loops outside of stadium and finished in about 1 hour 20 minutes on my Mountain Bike. Run: 10 Km. After fast ride and run, I was bit tired, my throat dried up and I felt hungry. I wasted lot of time at first pit stop but at last I finished 10km run in a good time and last one loop inside the stadium. It was a well spent day with fellow athletes.

A big credit goes to organizer and volunteers who helped and motivated me during the event to complete it & Delhi Police to ensure that the traffic was moved off our lanes when we were there. At last, the moment of the day was receiving medal from Mrs. Deepa Malik, an Indian Athlete. She is a paraplegic. Whether it is swimming against the strong Yamuna current, or riding a special bike or even taking a shot at the Paralympic Games, she has done it all. She has won bronze medal in Women Javelin throw. She has got nominated in Limca book of records for her swimming records. She is an inspiration for me.

I want to try more events in my life and keep going because the day I stopped accepting challenges in my life is the day I stop moving forward. Thank you to event organizer Chiro Mitra, Sangeeta Saikia and team for organizing this event in a well-structured way and looking forward to you for more events. 

Native Advertising

Advertisers and publishers are not new to ad blocking. It has been in existence since the time of desktop publishing. Over the last couple of years they have rushed to native advertising primarily because of the sharp rise in ad blocking. It works with the theory that if an ad is harder to identify as an ad, it would perform better against ad blockers.

Take fashion brand Lifestyle promotional campaign that highlighted its end of season sale. For the announcement ad, the company tied up with popular content site, and created a fun and engaging article on the types of people on average shopper would meet during a sale. The good thing is publishers are actively handholding advertisers to get around entry hurdles.

Twitter India, for instance offers brands the know to how to leverage native advertising through a host of products such as Promoted Tweet, Promoted Trend, and Native Video, that surface in the form of content that the user is familiar with. Brands need to be where their customers are, but that is increasingly a challenge as consumer’s consumption of content today takes place across multiple platforms from TV to online to mobile apps.

There are few things to remember while using native ads. Always add value for users. If users find the branded content informative and in line with their interests they’ll read and share it. Native content that is identified as sponsored and has a clear call to action performs the best. Being transparent is important to retaining the user trust and leading to engagement. Since native ads look and behave like the content around it, strive for quality content that’s good as the editorial content.

While consumers transition between devices they expect the content to be consistent whether on desktop or mobile and that goes for advertising too. Native ads are especially effective for cross platform campaigns, from PC to mobile. The look and feel of the native ad should be in line with the content on the page. Native ads flow in with the user content experience. With digital video consumption is on rise, and the user love for short snacky content, brands need to explore native video as well as stretch the creative boundaries on content genres.