India votes for football over cricket!

I came across this  interesting article from Times of India last week,  which disproves the theory that Indians are crazy only about Cricket!!!! 

A few statistics from the article:

Six out of 10 women drool over the England captain Beckham, every second man favours football over cricket.

Is it going to be the locks of Beckham or Mahi's mane, Ronaldo's power or the Wall's class, Ronaldinho's jig or Yuvi's charm? Call it sports enthusiasts' fickleness or the fact that football fever is all around us!

With the FIFA World Cup kicking off in Germany, it's a fever that's gripping the otherwise cricket-crazy nation and loyalties seem to be shared. As far as football goes, the tussle is between the glam and game. The fairer sex drools over the glam quotient offered by the footballers rather than the game whereas for the kids and men, it's always the action on the field that matters.

Forty-six per cent of the men polled and 48 per cent kids have a liking for soccer whereas for women, football comes after cricket with 37 per cent votes in favour of soccer compared to 46 per cent for cricket. For 41 per cent men, cricket was secondary vis-a-vis football.

It's interesting to note that kids are more inclined towards soccer. In cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Kolkata, the survey received an overwhelming response in soccer's favour with 9 out of 10 kids favouring soccer in certain cases.

Cricket rules in Delhi and Mumbai, and as expected, Kolkata is floored by football. But surprisingly, 65 per cent women in Bangalore and Ahmedabad also voted in favour of football whereas the percentage was 35 in Hyderabad.

David Beckham emerged as India's favourite football icon, courtesy his glam quotient and off-field antics. A whopping six out of 10 women rooted for the English captain. But the men voted for the Brazilian striker Ronaldinho, casting 40 per cent votes for his on-field skills.

His teammate Ronaldo had the support of 26 per cent fans with diehards like 13-year-old Chinmay from Pune saying he would stop watching football when Ronaldo leaves the game.

(The survey was conducted for a sample size of over 500 people across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in the age group of 9 to 35 years)

The full article is available at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1631981.cms