Transcript of Interview with Dr. Zarshis Avari

Gautam Viswanathan

Yes...ready, Doctor?

Zarshis Avari

since I was born, Editor

Gautam Viswanathan

So, why did you want to become a doctor?

Zarshis Avari

that's it?

no intros?

Gautam Viswanathan

You will see that in the final article

Zarshis Avari

Oh okay cool

Gautam Viswanathan

So, once again

Why did you want to become a doctor?

Zarshis Avari

Becoming a doctor was actually never on my agenda.

I always wanted to do research and be on the frontline of Science

Gautam Viswanathan

So what changed?

Zarshis Avari

I pursued that ambition by doing research for my Honours project

However, I soon realised how monotonous research can be.

Every experiment needs three repeats whose results have to match perfectly.

It means days, if not months of performing the same experiment repeatedly

In the middle of my project, I started talking about becoming a doctor with a close friend of mine

Gautam Viswanathan

But what about the lifetime commitment of being a doctor?

Zarshis Avari

You are not letting me finish

Gautam Viswanathan

Go on

Zarshis Avari

Once I had a few talks with her, she told me that being a Doctor is just as hard, and it is just as monotonous in the beginning as an intern.

However, you always have the chance to meet and talk to new people. New people brings new opinions and new information and you tend to grow as a person even while doing the same tasks again and again

I then decided to pursue a career in medicine

Also, the monotony does end once you become a resident. Doctors working in ED face new challenges every other day.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

So, essentially, being a doctor is like being on the front lines.

Zarshis Avari

It is.

It is the doctors that have to make the final decision that will affect the well being of the patient

And having that kind of responsibility is humbling yet exciting

Gautam Viswanathan

Surely that is not an easy decision to make. What were the thoughts going through your mind when you decided to alter your career?

Zarshis Avari

At the time I knew I was making the right decision. I did not have long sleepless nights trying to make the decision. And I don't regret making it either.

The only thoughts entering my mind were how I would convince my parents, since making that career change required me to take an year off.

Which is a big crime, in brown cultures

Gautam Viswanathan

Haha, I know the feeling. How did you approach them?

Zarshis Avari

I thought about letting my supervisor do the dirty work by telling them I was not cut out for research

But my ego would not let me do that.

So I had to suck it up and tell them I had decided to change my career.

They did not give me a lot of grief though, since they always wanted me to become a doctor.

Gautam Viswanathan

Oh how come?

Zarshis Avari

My dad hated the fact that I had "wasted" two years by doing Honours, but I knew that knowledge gained never goes wasted.

And i was right

My Honours degree will help me gain a part-time spot on a research team once I've finished my degree

Gautam Viswanathan

You've said that there is monotony when you're taking your first steps en route to becoming a doctor. Take us through the monotony

Zarshis Avari

As an intern we are supposed to look after the so called 'menial' tasks of putting in an IV drip, cannulation, administering drugs, taking histories and filling in endless amounts of paperwork.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay. 

Go on, please

Zarshis Avari

That is in addition to the studies we have to do to pass exams.

Also, most interns do overtime to gain experience and money, and hence you can see how it can very quickly drain your energy and enthusiasm for work.

Gautam Viswanathan

Yeah I do

So, take us through a day in your life

Zarshis Avari

It depends on which day of the week we are talking about. We have lectures on Tuesday and Friday, lab sessions on Wednesday, problem based group learning sessions on Thursday and a clinical day on Monday.

Gautam Viswanathan

I think most people here will be interested in knowing what interns do at the clinic

Zarshis Avari

You mean med students?

Gautam Viswanathan

Yes...my bad

Zarshis Avari

As medical students we are divided into small groups. Each group attends clinic at a different hospital. Every hospital has slightly different methods of teaching. At my hospital, we have tutored sessions where we learn communication skills such as history taking and giving bad news to patients, as well as examination skills where we learn how to perform system exams on patients such as hip exam, knee exam etc.

We also have sessions called SCORPIOS whereby we meet actual patients who come in to our medical education center and the students practice those skills on the patients.

In addition to that we are also taught important procedural skills such as gowning, CPR, taking basic obs, plastering etc.

In between the tutored sessions, students are free to make ward rounds and talk to, take histories, and perfomr exams on patients.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

You've used quite a bit of technical jargon in there...what are basic obs?

Zarshis Avari

Basic observations such as temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure etc.

Gautam Viswanathan

Right...and what is plastering?

Zarshis Avari

Applying casts/plasters or splints on fractures.

Gautam Viswanathan

I thought as much. On that note, what is gowning?

Zarshis Avari

Gowning up is a laborious procedure that we have to follow in order to gain access to operation theaters. It is done in order to maintain the sterility of the theater

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

Zarshis Avari

It mainly involves a lot of scrubbing, followed by more scrubbing

Gautam Viswanathan

On TV shows such as Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy, we see medical students being regarded as the lowest rung in the food chain. How true is this?

Zarshis Avari

Very true

It has its advantages and disadvantages though.

We are not allowed to perform major procedures on patients, however in case we do make a mistake during a minor procedure we are protected against lawsuits

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

Tell us a little bit about the paperwork you are expected to fill in

Zarshis Avari

As med students we do not fill out any perperwork

But as interns we would be expected to fill out forms required for blood transfusions, samples sent to the laboratories, patient medical and drug charts etc.

Every procedure that a patient goes through has a corresponding form/s that needs filling out.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

Zarshis Avari

Interns also have to do other tasks such as following up with the patients GP, calling his/her friends and relatives if need be

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay. So what sort of work are you expected to do in the clinic?

Zarshis Avari

All we do as med students is take histories and perform simplae examinations on patients such as a cardio exam, respiratory exam, musculoskeletal exams.

It is not work per se

It is still considered study

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

So how do you feel at the end of a day?

Once you've exited the clinic?

Zarshis Avari

I feel drained

And most often the first thing I do upon getting back home is plonking down on the bed and taking a nap.

Followed by a nice long shower/gym/football training.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay. What else do you do to unwind?

Zarshis Avari

I watch this comedy show called Taarak Mehta ka Ultah Chashma :)

It's a daily routine and I'm addicted

Gautam Viswanathan

Hahahaha

Zarshis Avari

The girls like to cook/bake to unwind

They call it procrastibaking

I find it a chore

Gautam Viswanathan

Haha

What about your other friends?

Zarshis Avari

Everyone has a different way of unwinding. Most of my Aussie friends love going to a bar and having a few beers or a bbq on a nice hot day. I prefer going to a sports bar and cheering my team on, but the time difference means that the games are telecast around midnight. Some of my other friends like to go for walks near the harbour bridge if the weather suits them. Some others do things I cannot mention here.

Gautam Viswanathan

Yes...those are best left in the supply closet

Zarshis Avari

Haha..absolutely

Gautam Viswanathan

But I'm sure one of the things that drains you emotionally is giving bad news to people.

Zarshis Avari

Yes it does. I remember this one session we had at clinic during our Haematology block where the clinic hired top notch actors to act out how patients would react upon being told bad news. The emotions they acted out were grief, denial, anger and confusion. That session ended with a lot of people feeling completely drained and a few left with tears in their eyes.

Gautam Viswanathan

Wow

Please continue

Zarshis Avari

That's it..as med students we have not yet been allowed to give bad news to actual patients.

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay...so take us through the process of recording a patient's history

Zarshis Avari

Taking a patients history is a lot like detective work. More often than not we have to tease out pieces of information that we as doctors think are important but may not be so for the patient. It involves asking the patient about his current illness and the symtoms and risk factors assoc. with the illness. We also have to enquire about their surgical history, past medical history, any history of disease that run in the family along with a detailed description of their social life which involves questions on their living status, finances, travel, immunisation, pets, etc.

Gautam Viswanathan

Surely there are some patients who would consider these a little too personal. How do you coax it out of them?

Zarshis Avari

We tell them they have to tell us that if they want to live.

It's pretty easy after that

Gautam Viswanathan

You didn't mince words there!

Zarshis Avari

We put it across to the patients in a different way, but the message is the same

Gautam Viswanathan

How do you normally convey it to them?

Zarshis Avari

We tell them that some of the questions may seem irrelevant or personal but we need to know everything in as much detail as possible to figure out an accurate diagnosis that will affect their management.

Ofcourse, as you get experienced you tailor the questions

You wouldn't ask all of these questions to a 18 year old man with a sniffle,

Gautam Viswanathan

Most definitely

But there are those who would still try to shoo you away and clam up. How do you deal with them?

Zarshis Avari

There will always be patients who will not listen to your advice

In the end, it is their decision and we have to respect it.

Establishing a rapport with the patient is an essential part of taking a history

If you have a good rapport it is very unlikely the patient will be uncooperative

In such cases, we can always ask their spouse, relatives or friends too.

Gautam Viswanathan

What if they refuse to answer you?

Zarshis Avari

If the patient and their relatives still refuse to answer questions then we can only help them in the most basic of ways

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

Zarshis Avari

Almost every procedure requires consent, and without that there is nothing left to do but ensure that the patient does not suffer.

Gautam Viswanathan

So the history is essentially a checklist that ensures you do what is best for the patient

Zarshis Avari

It is much more than a checklist

It will be different for each patient

It helps us figure out the best mode of approach

Gautam Viswanathan

Right

Zarshis Avari

For example a persistent fever can be due to a multitude of causes

With an accurate history, we might uncover that the patient has travelled to a high risk area and treat him for appropriate infections

An accurate history also helps the technicians such as the radiologists and the microbiologists

Gautam Viswanathan

How is dealing with a child different to dealing with an adult?

Zarshis Avari

Very different.

The medicine is different, the ethics are different, the approach is different and so is the history,

Gautam Viswanathan

How so?

Zarshis Avari

We were jokingly told by one of our professors that paediatric and veterinary medicine are quite similar in that the patient can not talk

We have to rely on what the parents and other relatives tell us

Also the some of the organ systems of a newborn child are different to an adult's

For example the bones of an adult are fused at the tips, whereas they are not in very young kids.

This makes it difficult for a doctor not experienced in paediatric x-rays to figure out whether the child has a fracture

Gautam Viswanathan

So what is the ethical conundrum surrounding a child?

Zarshis Avari

With newborn children there is also the issue of genetic diseases, some of which are very serious and have to be dealt with straight away to maximise the quality of life of the child.

A child cannot give consent and hence it is up to the parents.

Gautam Viswanathan

Ah

Zarshis Avari

Sadly, sometimes the parents do not have the baby's best interests at heart

Also there are ethical issues surrounding a 10 eyar old girl who visits you asking for contraceptive pills

Gautam Viswanathan

Ouch

Zarshis Avari

Do you tell the parents or not?

Do you still maintain privacy of the patient?

In most cases, yes

Gautam Viswanathan

Right

Zarshis Avari

Another ethical conundrum that is not limited to kids but is seen in kids quite often is abuse10:02

Be it sexual, physical or emotional.

It is the prerogative of the doctor to report any suspected abuse to the authorities

Gautam Viswanathan

Okay

One last question then, Doctor

At the end of the day, when you hang up your white lab coat and are done for the day, how do you feel, knowing that in your hands lie the keys to life and death?

Zarshis Avari

I feel like it is the biggest responsibility I have ever taken up/ will take up. As doctors, we spend time with some patients who are at their lowest points in life, and if I can ease their pain even a little bit then I will be a happy man.

It is definitely humbling,

Gautam Viswanathan

Thank you for your time, doctor

Zarshis Avari

Call me Zarshis

Gautam Viswanathan

Fair enough, Zarshis

Zarshis Avari

Zarshis Avari

If I ever become a paediatric doc I want to be called Doctor Z

News piece: Aston Villa's renewed hope lies in it's youth

Villa Academy skipper Samir Carruthers lifts the Next Gen Trophy in Italy on the first of April 2013. Graham Burke's brace gave the West Midlands side a 2-0 win against Chelsea in an all-English final. (Photo Courtesy avfc.co.uk)

Last season was not one Aston Villa fans would fondly remember. New manager Paul Lambert would look back on a season which saw his team exit the League Cup at the receiving end of a giant-killing from League Two side Bradford City and that ignominy only added to a season where Villa just about managed to avoid relegation to the Football Championship. 

But while the rest of the footballing world will look at last year as a failure, to those at Villa Park, it represents the resilience shown by Lambert for his steadfast belief in youth. The Birmingham side's flirtations with relegation may have caused heartache to many a Villa fan last season, but the club's plan is one of enduring short-term pain to oversee long-term gain.

Villa's excellent start to their new Barclays Premier League campaign has led to a new sense of optimism amongst club fans. 

78% of people who voted on fansite Villa Talk think that their team will finish mid table this season, while roughly 15% of fans think that the Midlands club could challenge for a place in Europe. What is heartening to see, however, is that not one fan thinks Villa are in for the drop come May.

Although it is still very early days, a whopping 95% of fans on the same site believe that there is cause for optimism this season. It is a belief reinforced by Paul Lambert, who wrote an impassioned letter to the fans of the club, thanking them for their support this season.

In an article in the Express and Star, the contents of Scotsman Lambert's letter were revealed:

“Inevitably, we experienced growing pains last season," he wrote. "But over the second half of the campaign there was a big coming together and a massive effort to secure the results which gave us that platform to continue to build."

“We’re a different team from that now. Everyone can sense this and see it, too, and some of our results so far have provided a real measure of just how far we have travelled in not much more than a year."

Despite losses to Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool, Villa fans who are no doubt eager for the domestic season to resume next weekend can look through highlights of memorable wins against Arsenal and Manchester City. Having played both Chelsea and Liverpool already, Villa now have a relatively easy set of fixtures to build on.

Key to their successes this season will be Belgium striker Christian Benteke, who was forced off against Norwich City with a groin complaint. The 22-year-old scored 28 goals for club and country, 21 of which were for Villa. 19 of these came in the Premier League and ensure Villa's survival last season as they finished 15th.

Despite facing a six-week injury spell on the sidelines, however, Benteke was called up by Belgium coach Marc Wilmots for his country's World Cup qualifiers. The Diables Rouges qualified for their first World Cup since 2002 on the 11th of October and Wilmots says that Benteke will be ready for Belgium's second game, which is against Wales. 

FIFA rulings state that Lambert has to let the Congo-born forward go, but he is none too happy about the decision.

But through the trials of last season was born a togetherness and team spirit that has seemed to reap dividends this time around. Villa skipper Ron Vlaar has extended his support to new signing Jores Okore, who suffered an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury just five games into his Villa career.

Netherlands centre-back Vlaar spent nearly two years on the sidelines and was doing his best to encourage his new Denmark international team mate.

Their fellow centre-back Ciaran Clark was also optimistic of Villa's season, adding that teams now feared facing the Villans.

"Maybe teams are looking at us now and knowing when they come up against us it's going to be a tough game," said the Republic of Ireland international. "We have had a tough start in the league. The games against Chelsea and Liverpool, we could have got points as well."

Villa centre-back Ciaran Clark and midfielder Fabian Delph were both included in WhoScored.com's Team of the Week before the international break began.

Versatile defender Clark was one of two Villa players to be included in WhoScored.com's Team of the Week for 5th and 6th October 2013: perhaps one of the clearest indications of the rising stock of players at Villa Park. The other was midfielder Fabian Delph.

And for those who say that the taste of the pudding is only in its eating, they need look no further than Aston Villa's triumph in last season's UEFA NextGen competition, newly launched to give youngsters the experience of playing in Europe.

Beating more fancied opposition such as PSV Eindhoven and Ajax from the Netherlands, Portugal's Sporting Lisbon, Greek outfit Olympiakos Piraeus and Celtic FC from Scotland, Villa's Academy prospects triumphed 2-0 over Chelsea at the Stadium Giuseppe Singaglia on the shores of Lake Como in Italy.

Villa's Irish forward Graham Burke scored on that night, but that was a team studded with starlets who could one day become mainstays at the Birmingham club. These include Academy skipper Samir Carruthers, Jack Grealish, Josh Barton, Gary Gardner, Calum Barrett, Daniel Johnson and Michael Drennan.  

The NextGen series will go a long way in quickening the pace at which these players develop, as Villa's Academy manager Brian Jones has said:

"In terms of the quality of opposition, this has certainly been the best competition that Aston Villa's youngsters have been involved with during my time at the club. It has given everyone a lift. The players, the coaching staff and Aston Villa as whole."

Like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, whose youth policy Villa seem to be emulating, Lambert prefers a hands-on approach to the development of his players. He was recently at a reserve game overseeing the return of Burke, who'd just come back from a loan spell at Shrewsbury, just as he was in Italy overseeing his young charges triumph.

It has always been the Lambert way of doing things, says former Villa frontman Dion Dublin, who gives the boss his vote of confidence:

"He looks to give young players a chance. If he finds a player of an older age and quality, he’ll play them – but he does like to give young British talent a chance," says the striker. “That’s why he did so well at Norwich and other clubs he’s been at. He does believe in the quality of the youth of today. He’ll back it – and look at the way they’ve started. That’s why he is the man for Villa.”

A section of Villa fans believe that their club's future stars are benefiting from loan spells at other clubs and this can only be a win-win situation for both parties. But whether those players will remain at Villa is not yet known. 

With the amount of talent being blooded through the system, there will always be bigger clubs looking to gazump Villa's long-term plans for one of their starlets. Goalkeeper Bradley Guzan has been in impressive form this season, but he has already received interest from Arsenal. Benteke was another player who seemed to be on his way out this summer, but despite interest from Tottenham Hotspur, he decided to stay at Villa Park.

What is important therefore is that Villa keep their players. Only then can they one day reach the same status as the clubs that are now sniffing around their best and brightest prospects.

On the Ball: Tying up all the loose ends

The last three posts of mine have been about my vidcast 'On the Ball' which looks at the problems plaguing Indian football and discusses how to correct them.

But there is much you will surely want to know about how all this took place. How did I get all these people to come to speak to me, how much did it cost? What about copyright infringement, all the behind-the-scenes information.

That's what I tell you here.

Gathering of sources

I planned to speak to three groups of people. The first were the fans, the ones who the players actually play for. The second were media personnel, the third were sports professionals.

The first fan I interviewed was Abhishek Iyer. He's been a friend of mine since we were toddlers and we've watched several football games with our friends. He is an ardent football fan and a couple years ago, he went to watch Blackburn Rovers take on Pune FC when he was studying (he still is) at a University in Pune.

He was therefore the best person to interview since he had seen the best (in a manner of speaking) of both worlds, witnessing an Indian I-League side take on a well-known European name.

Abhishek had a friend named Somnath whose brother I met at a family function. And no, I am not rambling a la Abe Simpson because his brother happened to be Apratim Mukherjee, a Risk Management Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers who had done in-depth analysis on Manchester United's floating on the New York Stock Exchange and knew the ins and outs of finances in Indian football.

The second group of fans I met with belonged to the Arsenal Supporters Group Bangalore Gunners. They organise screening of Arsenal matches and I wanted to film one of their screenings. I got in touch with them through their Facebook group, asking them whether I could film. The game I did film was the one against Manchester United, and there, I was able to interview a broad cross-section of fans who supported different clubs for their take on Indian football.

That day was doubly iconic because of the Guard of Honour afforded to United and because the group were gathering signatures to send to Arsenal as they were applying for official recognition.

For that game, fans who support not just Arsenal but Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool were all present and after taking permission from those concerned, I was able to interview a good cross section of fans from all four clubs. Although I did ask for female fans to be interviewed as well, they did not consent.

At the screening, I was also able to fix up an interview with two members of the organising committee, Akash Deep and Vivek Vijayakumar. Both of them have followed both Indian and European football for at least ten years and are well versed with both versions of the game.

Akash asked me a day after the screening as to whether I would like to watch a local game, something I had never been to before. One of the teams featured, Rangdajied FC, featured a footballer who was an ex-schoolmate of Akash. Because we (or rather he) knew someone in the team, we were allowed to enter the team’s dressing room. That meant that I was able to interview Ericson Lyngdoh and his brother Eugeneson, who plays for I-League side Shillong Lajong FC and had come to watch his brother play.

These footballers ultimately play for the fans, and when you don’t have fans at the stadium, you have to dig deep and muster the will to play yourself. Both Ericson and Eugeneson were keen to speak out on the current state of Indian football and what needed to be done to bring fans to the stadium.

Also present at the screening was Chinmoy Aroutray, who volunteered at the SPT Sports Academy on weekends. He gave me the number of Mr Kanishk Saran, the Vice President of the Academy’s parent company SPT Sports Management Pvt. Ltd. After meeting him in his office, I was given permission to film at the academy, interview parents and get a coach on camera.

The second academy I went to was the XLR8 Academy. I owe its discovery to Lyonoidus, the only bloke who has commented on my blog so far. He told me about the academy and once I had spoken with those concerned, was able to film and interview there.

The third was the Arsenal Soccer School in Oman. Few academies do youth development better than Arsenal, so why not go to the best? When I was there in March, my dad – who knows someone at the Academy – gave me a contact. I then got in touch with said contact and was able to film.

All the journalists I interviewed were either personal or professional contacts. The three personnel I interviewed at Sportskeeda were all former colleagues of mine. I had worked at the company for nine months and they were more than happy to help me. 

While at Sportskeeda, I was introduced to Amoy Ghoshal, who reports on Indian football for the site from Kolkata. A former Hindustan Times and Goal.com journalist, he agreed to be interviewed. It was also there that I met Ameet Nadi, who had spent ten years playing state-level cricket before branching into coaching at the Karnataka Cricket Academy and was therefore the best to quiz about the nation’s sporting culture.

Vineeth Krishnan is a former course-mate of mine. We did our undergraduate degrees together and he then went on to work for Times of India and ESPN. I emailed him and he agreed to a Skype interview.

Both Arya Yuyutsu and Kanishkaa Balachandran were coursemates of mine at the University of Sheffield where I completed postgraduate studies in Broadcast Journalism. They now work at ESPNcricinfo and I approached them to find out why cricket was so successful and how that contributed to the stagnation of football. 

Legal and Ethical considerations and distribution

Ericson did not want to be interviewed on camera as he was concerned about how he would come across. Since that was the only tool I had, I assured him I would only rip the sound from the interview and overlay that with images of him and his team mates.

All the filming that took place in both Oman and India was only taken and put on the public sphere after taking permission from all parties concerned. In the case of the Arsenal academy, I personally met them and showed them what footage I would be using. Any assurance that the footage would be used for academic purposes had to be compliant with the law.

In India, the Copyright Act of 1914 states that copyright will not be infringed by any fair dealing with any work for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, review or newspaper summary (Sharma, 2009).

Since Arsenal FC are in the UK, it was best to check that any filming was in accordance with British law as well. Fair dealing with copyright work for the purposes of criticism or review of that work or of another will not be treated as infringement subject to sufficient acknowledgement and that work being made available to the public (Banks & Hanna, 2009) according to the 1988 Copyright Act.

In addition, children were being filmed. I made sure that only those over the age of 16 were shown with their faces on camera. The others have been shown with side or rear profiles only, thereby adhering to the law that states that a child under 16 must not be filmed unless a parent or guardian is present (Society of Editors, 2009). Coaches from the Arsenal Soccer School were present during the filming.

In addition, Omani law states that public libraries, educational establishments and institutions can make a single copy of a published article or work for study and research if there is no direct/indirect financial gain (Curtis, et al., 2009).

In keeping with that, all three videos have been uploaded on YouTube and are available for the public. I have also made contact with my former employers at Sportskeeda to see if they will host my vidcast. I can now confirm that that has been agreed upon.

All archived footage was taken with the permission of those concerned. 

Even then, the responsibility to do the right think with the footage always lies with the journalist. (Jacquette, 2007) 

Social Media interaction

Truth be told, there wasn't much to begin with. I used the Bangalore Gunners Facebook page to rope in potential interviewees and fix up a filming date.

That aside, Sportskeeda.com had agreed to publish my vidcast and that means sharing it on all Facebook pages the site have in connection to football. which is about nine different pages. 

Surely Skype counts as social media? Yes? In that case, three of my interviews were conducted via Skype. Apratim, Vineeth and Amoy were all reached via Skype.

In addition, I got in touch with Arya, Kanishkaa and my former Sportskeeda colleagues through Facebook and that was how I arranged everything with them.

Logistics and equipment

This project wasn't cheap. When I began the project, I had around 85,000 rupees in my bank account, or close to £1,000. By the time I had finished, I was down to a little around Rs. 20,000 or around £225.

Most of that money had been spent on the project. But the reason that is the case is because the logistics of video journalism (broadcast journalism) are quite expensive. (Thompson, 2005).

Take for instance the time I went to the XLR8 Arena, which is a good 20 kilometres from where I live. Public transport over such long distances in unviable in Bangalore and few people are willing to wait for an hour while I film. I therefore had to hire a cab to and from the Arena and make the cabbie wait there for an hour while I filmed.

It was the same when I went to the STP Academy. Cabs were unavailable on that day because they were all engaged and I therefore had to engage an auto rickshaw for the journey, the standard mode of public transport, make the driver (who was known to me) wait there and then take the same auto back because the academy was quite isolated.

Even when I did arrange for a cab well in advance, there was the occasional cock-up. The cab service that was to send a car for me was overbooked and therefore could not convey me to my destination. I think I screamed at the customer service rep on the phone for a good twenty minutes before gathering the common sense to ring up another cab company who sent me a cab straight away. Halfway through my journey, the manager of the first cab company did call back to say he had a cab waiting for me and apologised but by then I had already set off for the academy.

When I went to interview Arya and Kanishkaa, the rain was pouring down and obtaining an auto was rather difficult. I therefore asked the driver to take me there, wait for an hour and then take me back because there was no guarantee that I could get transportation back as it was rather late at night.

In addition, shipping the assignment to the UK cost around Rs. 5000 or £60. The pen drives which contain the date cost another Rs. 2,000 (£25).

The camera I used was a standard Canon PowerShot SX210 and the tripod I bought was of standard make, the one available in most shops. It came for around £10.

Adobe Premiere Pro was the editing software I used and Moyea Video Converter was used to boost sound levels. In that case, I grabbed the video straight from what I had filmed while the audio was imported once it had been boosted. Coordination between the two therefore was very important.

Conversion of video from one form to another was done using Leawo Video Converter while Skype interviews were recorded using the rather aptly named Video Capture Software from Softonics. Evaer, a software specially designed for Skype capture, was also used.

YTD YouTube Downloader was used to download all the required videos.

Screengrabs that you see in the videos were captured using MS Paint.

Technical concerns

The biggest technical concerns arose from the camera itself. It did not have a strong or precise enough microphone to capture the voices of those who did speak softly while capturing unwanted environmental noise.

I had initially bought 8.5 GB DVDs in an attempt to create a DVD via Windows DVD maker and ship it to the UK but after wasting four DVDs which either got stuck or refused to record due to errors, my dad suggested buying pen drives and recording the videos on them.   

Uploading the videos onto YouTube was also tedious. They took about 24 hours apiece and it was very frustrating to have to wait. 

In addition, Adobe Premier Pro kept crashing on me and the heaviness of the programme meant my laptop was frequently overheating.

In the end though, I hope that my project is similar to Radamel Falcao joining Monaco. Expensive but totally worth it.

Bibliography:

Banks, D. & Hanna, M., 2009. McNae's Essential Law for Journalists. 20th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Curtis, Mallet-Provost, Colt & Mosle, 2009. Focus On: Copyrights and Fair Use. [Online]
Available at: http://omanlawblog.curtis.com/2009/06/focus-on-copyrights-and-fair-use.html
[Accessed 07 June 2013].

Jacquette, D., 2007. Journalistic Ethics: Moral Responsibility In The Media. 1st ed. New Delhi: Pearson.

Sharma, A., 2009. Indian Perspective of Fair Dealing under Copyright Law: Lex Lata or Lex Ferenda?, Bhopal: National Law Institute University.

Society of Editors, 2009. Newspaper and magazine publishing in the UK: Code of Practice, Cambridge: Press Complaints Commission.

Thompson, R., 2005. Writing For Broadcast Journalists. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.

On the Ball Episode 3: what is being done at grass root level

In my first two episodes, I took a look at what the problems plaguing Indian football were and why they existed. In the third episode of 'On the Ball', I take a look at what is being done at grass-root levels.

In the third episode of On the Ball, I went to youth academies in both India and abroad to find out the foundations being laid for the footballers of the future.

My first stop was the Arsenal Soccer School in Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. Although not part of the assignment specifically, the reason I went to the Soccer School is because Arsenal are one of the best when it comes to developing youth.

At the school, I interviewed head coach Luis Miguel Gorgulho.

"If you take India for example, we know they love cricket. Cricket is their major sport. Wherever there's a major sport that dominates one generation's physical activity [sic] it goes without saying that there's not going to be much opportunity for football," says the Englishman."By providing kids who don't normally have that opportunity to play football, already you've made a step forward."

He is of the opinion that coaches from abroad are the best way to boost the game from the bottom up in nations that don't normally have a footballing culture. For this, he says, Europe is the best place to get coaches from, given the global success of European football.

"Because our coaches are fully qualified coaches, they are going to bring a higher level of coaching," he says. "That's not to say that there aren't coaches anywhere else in the world who can't do the job, but the experience that we bring with us from Europe, which is the hotbed of world coaching and world football, that's obviously going to impart a higher level of football development in a less developed country".

This is the philosophy the SPT Academy follow. With centres in New Delhi, Assam and Bangalore, the academy offers football coaching for kids from ages 6 to seventeen. In order to give them the best training, they have roped in Javier Cabrera, a UEFA certified coach who has coached Spanish sides Celta de Arguelles and Sagrados Corazones in the past.

The training methodology at the academy is similar to the one used in Spain, he says.

"Our methodology at SPT Sports is the Spanish methodology. This is focused on the specific training," says the Spaniard. "We organise a circuit with three different drills. One drill, for example is about passing and control, another drill is about one small-sided game, a possession drill, and for example another one [is a] shooting drill. We make small groups of players and they make rotations".

Although provisions are in place to improve the quality of India's next generation of footballers, he says the level between the kids in his native Spain and here is quite vast because of the lack of training that potentially skilled talents receive.

"The level between the Spanish kids and the Indian kids is very different. Here, there is talent. Here, if these kids keep training with high-level coaches, they can improve fast."

But development takes place fastest at a young age. One of the reasons he feels Indian kids are missing out is because they start training very late. "In Spain, you start training at five years old, here most of the kids are thirteen, fourteen years old, [but] of course we have many small guys," he says. 

"This is a very big gap because when you learn to play football, it is maybe from eight to twelve years old. That phase is very important, so if you start playing at thirteen [or] fourteen, you have to recover so many things."

That imbibing with skills at a very young age is what is being done across town at the XLR8 (pronounced 'accelerate') Indoor Sports Arena. In a city where open space is scarce, indoor arenas provide children with the space they require to learn.

But Cetric Joe, who oversees soccer training, says that kids want to have fun, not learn the bookish aspects of the game when they are very young.

"At this level, kids will be really bored to do the exercises or fitness," he says, referring to the latest batch of six-year-olds at the Arena. "As soon as I see the game, I want to play the game, before even I warm up, I get inside the court, I take the ball, and I want to form a team and I want to play immediately. I don't want to do the warm-up. That is what the kids are saying."

"But the atmosphere to do the warm-up, do the exercise, before the get into the game, that is very important," he adds.

Taher says the Arena is committed to taking the coaching classes from the most basic of levels so that kids learn to play football the right way.

"If you look at the coaching classes that we have right now, we are taking them from a basic level," says Taher, who has more than ten years of experience working with kids. "If you want [the kids] to play football again and again, you have to engage [them] in playing football, let them know what it is to play football."

"You are talking about an orthodox Indian culture where the PE teachers just stand in one place, saying 'go for eight rounds, for ten rounds' (around the pitch) where kids don't want to come back. Playing football indoors is more physically tiring than playing outside".

"When you play on an eleven-a-side ground, you'll have time to rest," he continues. "But indoors, you play five-a-side in this field, this 30 metres by two and a half metres field, there, for eight people running around, they have to run every second. There is a different form of fitness that we do". 

"Physically, your fitness, your endurance, all the stuff, the game will give you".

This mushrooming is sporting academies has only come up recently. In a nation like India, first preference is given to education because jobs are at a premium in an economy which has more than a billion people. But people are now seeing sports as a viable career path, as can be seen above. Another example of the same is Ameet Nadi.

A state-level cricketer since the age of 14, Ameet's tryst with cricket met a cruel and untimely end when he suffered a double jaw fracture while batting for his team. Since then, he has been coaching at cricket clubs in Karnataka state, having recently earned his coaching certification and also works for a company that provides fitness equipment.

"There was emphasis but it wasn't very widespread, not everyone was fortunate to get that attention," says the 31-year-old, referring to the standards of sport at school level when he was growing up. "There were very few coaches who were really good and you needed to be really fortunate to get their attention.These days, the access to a good coach is better than what it was before".  

"In India, especially, where there is a surplus population, employment is an issue, especially for people who are coming from middle-class families," he says, rather frankly. "So we need to ensure that sportsmen have enough number of jobs so that more people take to sport. Even if it is a corporate, they can always concentrate on sport."

"Basically, it is about generating employment in whatever capacity so once everyone knows that there is a good chance for employment even when you are a decent sportsman, that is when the sporting culture really starts developing".  

On the Ball Episode 2: why the problems that plague Indian football exist

In my previous episode, I blogged about the problems that exist in Indian football. It came down to three salient factors:

1. The lack of awareness and investment in the Indian sport
2. The superior quality of European football
3. The presence of cricket as the nation's dominant sport

In this second episode of On the Ball, I interviewed sports journalists and financial analysts who told me why these problems existed and looked at how they can be solved. In addition to only interviewing journalists associated with football, I also spoke to media personnel who were involved with cricket to get an alternate perspective into why Indian football is struggling.

1983 and India's triumph at Lord's

The primary reason India's dominant sport is cricket is because of what transpired at Lord's on the 25th of June in 1983, a day that will be considered one of the greatest in India's sporting heritage.

Classed as underdogs throughout the tournament, Kapil Dev's India beat the West Indian cricket team in the final, who were then considered cricket's dominant force, bowling out Clive Lloyd's team from the Caribbean for 140 runs, winning their first ever tournament by 43 runs, ensuring they had joined the clique that could lay claim to winning the World Cup.

"That was the time when cricket started displacing hockey as the number one sport in India," says Kanishkaa Balachandran, senior sub-editor as ESPN Cricinfo. "It's not to say that cricket wasn't popular before that but that was the turning point and that win had really sparked off the belief that India could actually win an international tournament in a sport other than hockey."

That wave gained momentum with the arrival of satellite television in the early nineties, when cricket matches from all over the world could be viewed in the comfort of one's living room. That decade also saw India host the 1996 edition of the tournament: a transition that saw cricket change from a highly popular sport to a highly profitable one.

Jaideep Chakrabarty is a social media analyst who works for multi-sport website Sportskeeda.com. "For a sport to survive, you have to provide stars, one, and results, two. Since 1983, India has produced stars at a regular basis. Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, they have kept on coming, and they have multiplied their successes as well," he says.

"The administrators need to identify a few moments. India won the World Cup in 1983 but till 1996, cricket wasn't a profitable sport. Parents didn't allow their kids to go and become cricketers but the scenario changed in 1996 actually when the World Cup came to India and someone like Jagmohan Dalmiya (the head of Indian cricket's governing body), who absolutely cashed into that opportunity and he took cricket to grounds in the interiors and made a huge, huge impact."

"That World Cup made the biggest impact in Indian cricket," he adds. "Cricket started making money because the big sponsors started coming in."

Are the administrators to shoulder the blame for the state of Indian football?

In a nation where cricket is considered religion, one of the nation's sporting gods is Sachin Tendulkar, who recently completed his one hundredth international hundred. Gautam Mahajan, Jaideep's colleague at Sportskeeda, says football needs someone like him.

"We need a Sachin for football. Sachin became so successful in cricket because every single kid could associate with him. They could empathise with Sachin when they saw Sachin play. We've never had someone like that [for Indian football]," says the editor.

"Baichung Bhutia was at that level but [the administrators] didn't make use of him. He went and played in Europe and all of that but it never helped because there has been no marketing of the I-League," adds Mahajan. "The I-League is supposed to be our showpiece, our most important league, this is where all our football takes place. All our footballers play in the I-League."

"Everyone is playing in the I-League so why doesn't ESPN Star Sports broadcast it? Why is there not better coverage of it? Why can't we have HD cameras for a change?" he asks.

If there was one single incident on the international scale to show how lackadaisical the attitude towards the game is by those who govern it, it was when Lionel Messi represent Argentina in an international friendly against Venezuela at the Salt Lake Stadium - India's largest football stadium - in Kolkata in September 2011.

"Argentina plays against Venezuela and it's on astroturf, and it was emitting so much of heat that they actually had to take a time-out in the 77th minute," says a slightly incredulous-looking Jaideep. "Now those kind of facilities has to change. You can't expect an international footballer of Lionel Messi's standard [who] just has to say 'stop the game because I am getting tired here because of the heat'. You can't have that."

The installation of state of the art facilities in the stadium had been lacking until Messi was scheduled to play there. Since then however, those facilities have fallen into disrepair.

Amoy Ghoshal formerly worked as a correspondent for Indian football for both the Hindustan Times and Goal.com. "You need to have proper dressing rooms, proper media centres, proper referees' rooms, which no stadium in India has at the moment," he says. "When Lionel Messi came to India, everything was renovated at the Salt Lake Stadium but then again everything went back to where it was: dirty stadiums, the fire extinguishers have already crossed their expiry date."

"In the twelve months time since Messi's appearance in Kolkata, it went back to where it was ten years ago," laments Amoy.

Change on the horizon?

Although this is the current state of Indian football, the sport does have a very large following. Being the world's most populous nation has attracted the attention of FIFA, who see vast potential in the country. In an attempt to raise awareness of the sport in India, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has bid for the 2017 edition of the U-17 FIFA World Cup.

Amoy hopes that the tournament will bring about the change needed where it matters most: at grass-roots.

"When I say grass-root level, I don't just mean clubs having four [to] five age groups of [teams, but] most schools should have a playground at the minimum. I can tell you that schools in Kolkata for example, the school that has the most students, they don't have a playground. You have to start playing at a young age and you have to be encouraged to take that sport seriously." he says, adding that schools in the nation don't know how important teams sports are for building a child's character.

Another aspect of the game he says will improve is the infrastructure, which as mentioned above is sub-par at best.

"If we do get to host the tournament, it will be a massive lift for the infrastructure of the game. Whenever a foreign player or a foreign coach comes in, the first thing they complain about is infrastructure, because without proper stadiums you will not get to see better teams coming and improvement in the youth structure."

But while Amoy was looking at the positives the tournament could potentially bring, Vineeth Krishnan has already found a snafu in the country's preparation for that tournament. The former Times of India journalist recently travelled to Kalyani on the outskirts of Kolkata to observe the set-up of the under-14 academies that were being set up in an attempt to prepare India's current generation of youth footballers for the tournament.

"These were state institutions hand-picking a select group of players, saying these are our best under-14 talent and from there [current AIFF Academy director] Scott O'Donnell and other coaches picked them up and brought them to Kalyani and you have a large number of them being tested for being overage, as overaged as 17 years old," he says.

The only states that did provide players of the right age group were Goa and Kerala.

"So where are we going to go forward?" he asks. "The whole idea of focusing on the 2017 World Cup for the U-17's was that India, if we get in as hosts, and we train these kids for three years, could reach a level where they could, not win the tournament, nobody was expecting them to win the tournament, but at least put up a good effort, display some good attacking football, for example."  

Vineeth is of the opinion that that Indian showing will give a boost to the game in India, something that has not happened so far. In an effort to improve the state of football from the bottom upwards, Scott O'Donnell, formerly of the Asian Football Confederation's grass roots development arm and Rob Baan, who was previously employed at Feyenoord and ADO Den Haag in his native Netherlands, were appointed as the  Academy head and technical director of the AIFF respectively.

The duo have the right ideas, according to Vineeth, and are the people to take India forward, having already modernised the training methods imparted to students at academies in the country.

"You've got a lot of Dutch coaches coming in. The Dutch are amazing at dealing with kids," he says. "You try to instil that sort of technique into the Indian game which to me is good. There's a lot of Indian coaches calling for Indian coaches to come in and take over and do away with the foreign coaches, but to them all I have to ask is, you had sixty years to do your training, where have you taken the country?"

Football: where's the moolah?

The Indian Premier League is a cricket tournament instituted in 2008 as a method of providing entertainment to cricket fans via a Twenty20 format of the game. The nine teams that contest the league are all owned by private enterprises, who have capitalised on the nation's near-fanatical fan following, and while some of them are waiting to turn a profit, a majority of teams are raking in the dough.

"The IPL came about because of Lalit Modi," says Kanishkaa. "Lalit Modi was a visionary. He pictured this tournament many years before the IPL actually came into existence so that was like his business plan and he employed it for cricket. Now if football had somebody like him to sort of spruce it up and if there was a tournament, an IPL-like tournament that comes up for football, that would be great."

But while there is hope that the infrastructure will improve and the game will develop with the potential arrival of the 2017 U-17 World Cup, will it - like in the case of cricket - bring about the necessary funds required for the sport to develop further in India?

The reason this is of concern is because of the recent folding of two I-league sides after operating costs which ranged from Rs. 70 to 100 million became very high for Mahindra United and JCT FC to manage, which meant they shut down after the 2009-10 and 2010-11 season respectively.

In 2010, IMG Reliance, the Indian arm of global sports media company IMG, signed a fifteen-year deal with the AIFF believed to be worth Rs. 7 billion. The money from that deal was to be split amongst all fourteen clubs in the league. Do the math and that amounts to about 500 million rupees over ten years, which amounts to fifty million rupees a year.

But that is only the first of many steps in the right direction What did later complicate matters was that IMG Reliance, who under the terms of the agreement would market and publicise the I-league, were struggling to attract sponsors less than two years into the partnership, which means that one of the problems in the Indian game is a lack of money from investors.

"Indian football could actually use money coming in from different sources," says Apratim Mukherjee of PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Currently, the league is looking to revamp it's structure so hopefully the new model that they come up with would ensure that they come up with sustainable revenue so that more investment pours in."

"The three major sources of revenue for any football club are gate revenues, media rights and sponsorships. Media rights is completely controlled by the AIFF while sponsorships and gate revenues are in the hands of the football clubs," he continues. "On top of that you've got a sort of a limit to the number of sponsors a football club can have, which is apparently six, so not much potential there and gate revenues according to figures that we have, it's pretty low. It's pretty worrying actually, considering that people are hardly watching Indian football at all in India, people hardly turn up in numbers to watch matches live."

This new model Apratim speaks of is one where a format similar to the one Major League Soccer in the United States is used. Because of the size of the States, the league is split into two portions, the Eastern and Western Conferences, but he says that Indian clubs are few and far between:

"[In the MLS], you've got clubs from all over and equally represented, which is not the case in India. In India, definitely the interest and the passion that you have in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai [and] Bangalore needs to be tapped. I don't think that these cities are even represented well enough in the league."

"I think there's a lot of money to be made, the time is right but I think the AIFF and the league that is in place, they have to get something going," he says in closure. 

On the Ball episode 1: What the fans think of Indian football

It's been a while since I posted, but here is the first section of my three-part vidcast as part of my MA project at Birmingham City University.

Christened 'On the Ball', my project takes a look at the poor state of Indian football and what is being done to improve the quality of the sport in the game.

Why did I choose Indian football?

A stereotype that exists among the generation of my parents and grandparents is that all Indians are cricket fans. They are therefore shocked when I tell them I am a football fan. What makes this even harder for them to stomach is that I don't enjoy cricket.

This is an attitude you will find throughout India and with good reason. Cricket is India's dominant sport because of the successes that it has achieved on the international level. Interest in the game quite naturally exploded when an Indian team labelled massive underdogs led by Kapil Dev won the World Cup when they beat the West Indies at Lords in 1983.

TV channel Ten Sports broadcasts football from the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and France's Ligue 1. Ten Sports' sister channel Ten Action began broadcasting India's top-flight football league (the I-League) in 2011 and will continue to do so until the 2014-15 season.

Ten Action entered the frame after the league's previous broadcaster Zee Sports terminated their contract over broadcasting rights with the All India Football Federation in 2010, three years into their ten-year deal in an attempt to transition the switch from one network to the other as the Ten network is also owned by Zee.

But for that one season in between Ten Action picking up where Zee Sports left off, there was no national broadcaster for the nation's top flight football league: something that is surely unfathomable in any other country and is something the government should have taken care of. That lack of a national broadcaster is the perfect reflection of the government's attitude towards football.

Joe Morrison is a presenter for the Ten network. "There is enough money in India but financial decisions are being made by people who don't understand the business of football," Morrison said in an article on football.co.uk

"The guys who make commercial decisions and decide sponsorship budgets (the money men) are predominantly older, they were brought up on a diet of cricket through their youth therefore they don't understand that today’s young generation have a huge appetite for football."

Because of this attitude at the top, the condition of the Indian game is poor at best. It's not just the quality of football on the pitch that is sub-par but the entire infrastructure surrounding the sport. While cricket stadia in the nation have bleachers and/or bucket seats, football has to make do with grounds that have cemented stands for the audience. 

I went to Bangalore football stadium to watch an Indian game and the seating arrangements were comprised primarily of the above stands. Seating in the form of plastic chairs was only present in the VIP section of the stadium.

It is often said that footballers play for their fans, and the views of the average Indian footballer could not be more in sync with their supporters. After the game at the stadium, I went down to the changing rooms (which were poorly lit and reeked of urine) to see if I could talk to a couple of the players.

I was fortunate to interview Ericson Lyngdoh, whose side Rangdajied FC had won promotion to the I-league from India's second division during that game. 

"They should start training from [a] young [age], when they are six or seven years old and teach them the basics then," he says, when asked what needs to be done to improve the quality of the players in the game. What Ericson says is true. He never had formal professional training on his own, having honed his skills when he attended school in Bangalore. He says he was taught the game by his brother Eugeneson, who plays as a midfielder for I-league side Shillong Lajong FC.

Eugeneson Lyngdoh was also at the game, which had a sparse crowd of little more than a hundred people in a stadium which could comfortably accommodate twenty thousand. "I think, in India, only in Kolkata do you have a crowd. But in Shillong, when Shillong Lajong play, there are a lot of people who turn up to support the team."

The reason there are crowds at stadia in Kolkata and Shillong in the country's east is because that region is a footballing hub. It is where the British first set up base when they came to India in the 17th century and football in India found roots there. Other areas where the sport is extremely popular are the state of Kerala in the south, where several European clergymen founded missions, and the former Portuguese colony of Goa in the nation's west.

The nation's top flight football clubs are located in it's hotbeds which as can be seen from the map above are very far from each other

But these areas are far and few in between and Eugeneson acknowledges that more must be done by the clubs and the media in order to get fans to watch local games. "I think it's how you get interaction with the fans," he says. "Fans also try to support the team. Get them motivated to come and support the team because I think you play well when you have support."

"I think the team plays well when the supporters are there," says Eugeneson, referring to the game that had just taken place where the small section of Rangdajied fans that had come to the stadium had been cheering their team on for the entire duration of the game. "If the supporters are there, like today, [it was] all thanks to the supporters that the team got a moral boost. We have to do a lot of stuff regarding this."

Stuff that involves reaching out to football fans in India. A Nielsen study in 2010 showed that 47% of the nation's then 1.2 billion people considered themselves to be football fans. But while that is the big picture, zooming in on a study conducted by India's Television and Media Research Institute shows that football draws 83 million TV viewers per annum. But that figure is primarily because of the airing of foreign football in India. American broadcaster ESPN shows over 1500 hours of Premier League football, while Ligue 1, the German Bundesliga, Major League Soccer and the Spanish Primera Liga are all broadcast live in India.

This shows the disparity between the number of people who have a fondness for the game and those who have access to it. In addition, because of the far superior quality of the European game and it's star billing, football fans in India prefer watching foreign football to the I-league. Because football is not a major sport in the subcontinent, the domestic receives little coverage in the media, as a consequence of which people don't even know when games are telecast in India.

In contrast, fans of European clubs are so up to date with their fixture schedules that they organise screenings for fans of a particular club to band together and watch their favourite teams in action. Bangalore Gunners is a supporters group that was founded in the year 2007 in an attempt to host screening for fans of Arsenal Football Club.

In the six years of their existence, they have grown from being a group containing a handful of people to one that is on the verge of receiving official recognition from Arsenal FC. Earlier this year, the group also organised a 'Be a Gunner, Be a Runner' charity run in Bangalore, an activity that is held in London by Arsenal every year. The group did so with the blessing of Arsenal and procured the necessary promotional material for the event from Arsenal themselves, a move that earned them notice from the Emirates Stadium outfit.

Last month, I went to a screening at a restaurant in Bangalore. It was an iconic day for the group: they were collecting signatures for the paperwork they were sending to Arsenal in order to receive official recognition. On that day, the Gunners were playing Manchester United and I was able to get a good cross section of fans from both clubs (and a few supporters of other clubs) to air their woes on what ails Indian football.

Their responses were manifold, ranging from a lack of promotion of the local game and the absence of grass roots football to the domineering nature of cricket as a sport and the lack of investment in football.

That last point was one elaborated on by some of the members of Bangalore Gunners. I spoke to Akash Deep and Vivek Vijayakumar, both long-standing members of the group.

"I blame the government for not supporting the game," says Akash when quizzed on the current state of Indian football. "The common man here knows A to Z about cricket but doesn't know what the off-side rule is. Ninety percent of the population doesn't know much about the game and that pretty much explains the standard of the game here. I do not blame cricket either. Cricket has done it's part to earn the respect it's gotten."

"Advertise the telecasts. We don't even know when there is live telecast [of Indian football games]," adds Vivek. "If there is a telecast and I know about it I will probably watch."

The UEFA Champions League, arguably one of the most watched tournaments in the world, airs well past midnight in India because of the time difference between here and Europe. Abhishek Iyer regularly stays up to watch these games, because:

"When you see the supporters in Europe, they way they follow football, it just makes you want to stay awake and watch the matches. It is just so intense. The level of football, the quality of football, it's just so entertaining. There are three channels which broadcast matches here and you want to watch all three at the same time but you can't do that so I keep switching channels."

A Chelsea fan, Abhishek went to watch Blackburn Rovers take on Indian side Pune FC when they came down to India two years ago. "To see them (the players) on the TV and then watch them in real life was just awesome," he says, when asked about his experience of the game. "It was absolutely brilliant. It was a different feeling altogether. Getting to go watch a Premier League team in action was just mind-blowing."

Like most football fans in India, Abhishek is concerned about the state of affairs in Indian football. He summed it up in one succinct sentence which was in heavy contrast to the praise he heaped upon European football. One that aptly reflects the Indian game:

"India with a population of 1.3 billion can't put out a team of eleven."

My Multimedia Project: improving interest in Indian football

Hi everyone.

This is the teaser to my Multimedia Project at Birmingham City University which features Arsenal Soccer School coach Luis Miguel Gorgulho who speaks about the necessity of youth academies in India.

My project centres around cultivating interest in Indian football, looking at what problems it suffers from and finding solutions to these problems.

I am a football fan. That being said, it makes me sad to see the plight of football in my home country, India. Fans of the beautiful game stay up late at night to watch Champions League football transmitted from Europe but do not switch on the television in the middle of the day to watch local football being played.

Stadia in Europe a world-class theatres with perfectly manicured pitches and top-of-the-range amenities that would make people want to go and watch games there. In India, however, football stadiums still employ stands and are more often empty than they are full on match days, in stark comparison to cricket grounds which often sell out to packed crowds.

With the intention of bringing awareness to what changes are currently taking place in Indian football, I plan to make a three-episode vidcast on the topic. This will be a hybrid TV show cum vidcast which will have the following episodes (though not in that particular order):

1.) What the fans think of the Indian game, why they follow the European game and what must be done to improve the quality of Indian football. This episode also contains interviews with players who currently play in India.

2.) The presence and development of youth football in India and the sporting culture present in the world's seventh largest nation.

3.) The presence of foreign football in India and how it is harming the local sport.

At the time of writing, filming for the first part of this vidcast has been completed. The episode should be out in roughly ten days time. It includes interviews with football fans and the Bangalore Gunners supporters group who organise screenings for Arsenal fans in the city. In addition, I have interviewed two Indian footballers.

The second episode should be out by the middle of May. This involves filming at youth academies throughout the city of Bangalore and the interviews of two individuals closely related to sport. One is a former state-level cricketer while the other is training to be an MMA fighter. I have also filmed at the Arsenal Soccer School in Oman, where I was able to discuss academy development in general.

The third episode features interviews with journalists from several organisations. These include ESPN, the Times of India, Hindustan Times and Sportskeeda.com. If feasible I am also going to try and get in touch with football representatives from both Australia and Japan, due to the rapid rise of the A-league and J-league respectively.

All footage used in these interviews have been taken with the permission of their respective owners. Do feel free to pass on your comments and suggestions to me.

Until Next Time,

Cheers