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Late last week, an ecstatic batch-mate reported his experience on-site at Dortmund - where he had gone to watch Brazil play Ghana in the World Cup 2006. He reached 3 hours earlier to secure the best spots. He cried himself hoarse before the game started. And he enjoyed the famed Brazilian wave swamping the Ghana penalty box, sitting right behind the goal post.
Reliving his experience, I couldn't but help reflecting on mine. I reached home 30 minutes before the match started, switched on the TV, tapped the beer and flopped down on the bean bag, ready to devour the 90 minutes of ESPN coverage, complete with 9 camera angles, replays, reverse angles, match statistics and crowd noise blended into the commentary. That wasn't too bad either!
Whether we like it or not, technology has come to dominate two aspects of sports: the way we play it, and the way we watch it. Gone are the days when football was just a game played by 22 bipeds using a inflated bladder sporting a leather stitched cover. This year's "Teamgeist" balls have specially developed panels to reduce corner friction and aerodynamic contours to create those swings in the air (remember the goal scored by Frings and Rodriguez?). Today's referees sport headsets for efficient communications with the control room and with the assistant referees. Today's players use video footage to watch every move of the player they have been assigned to mark, and goalkeepers use carefully prepared stats to predict how the player will shoot during a penalty.
Live coverage today boasts a newly unveiled "reverse angle" that shows you the movement or shot as it would have looked had you been on the opposite side of the field ! Amazing, isn't it? f course, the cricket gorged Indian fans are well aware of technology in their favourite game. Channel 9 introduced the now famous stump cameras and multi angle displays. A recent series previewed the fantastic super slomo that created visually splendid reproductions of the moment of impact. Radio toting umpires are ubiquitous, and the hawk eye brings vision to those who missed the swing of the ball - reverse or otherwise.
The list doesn't stop here. From line calls and net touches in Tennis to on board cameras and machine stats in F1 championships, technology provides players the extension in range, umpires and referees the extension in accuracy and spectators the extension in comprehension. Footballers are now experimenting with chip-embedded balls to capture that wrong 'un that sneaked just behind the goal line; high-end golf balls today already have chips that enable faster spotting on the roughs and provide stats on club speed, angle of contact etc. No doubt this sumptuous chip-fest adds hitherto unknown dimensions in these games. The raging debate however is on the rising complexity that is resultant. Third umpires, Match referees, decision appeals all slow down the game.
Football is a game of flow - 90 minutes of heart-stopping uncertainty. Such games need to be played on skill and positive results - do you really need technology to uphold an onside goal? Or for that matter a batsman out with a stump uprooted by a valid yorker? I remember fondly the passionate arguments that I used to have with my friends on the hand of god in the 1986 world cup. In the days preceding technology, ignorance gave us feed for conversations and starters for arguments.
The certainty today brings with it silence twinged with shame. Would English fans really be happy knowing that Crouch's goal against Trinidad & Tobago was actually a foul? Or that Shevchenko tripped himself to get the penalty against Tunisia?
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