Every summer, a familiar scene plays itself out in playgrounds all over Bangalore. In schools and colleges, public and private fields, in the farthest corners of the city, the same sights greet any onlooker: practice nets, kitbags, boys in white. If India's obsession with cricket needed any reiteration, the mornings in April and May provide copious amounts of it.
A number of sporting associations or clubs — representing a variety of sports — host summer camps, but it is fair to say that for scale and participation, few can trump cricket. Yet there are sports with their own appeal and devout following, unaffected by developments outside.
Nowhere is this better borne out than at the National College Grounds in Basavanagudi. Three different cricket camps share the place every summer; amid them all stands Bangalore United Football Club (BUFC).
“We've been around since 1992 and the interest in football has never waned,” says Chitra Gangadharan, former women's international and an AFC ‘A' licensed coach. “When we started, our first camp had 20 children; today we get around 80. They come because they love the game. I have never felt that we're competing with other sports for summer camp numbers. I've had parents tell me that their son had joined a big cricket camp but got only one turn to bat in the month. Football is different.”
Operating just alongside, as it has for the last 25 years, is Basavanagudi Aquatic Centre. Swimming can, perhaps, lay claim to the second spot after cricket in terms of numbers; BAC, with its twin pools and an army of coaches, boasts an intake of nearly 2,000 every summer.
“Swimming is a life-saving skill; so it's not really threatened by other sports,” feels head coach Pradeep Kumar. “Although hardly 10 per cent of learners enter competitive swimming, summer camps are thriving because parents understand that this is an essential skill,” he says.
Basketball, while not a sport with a mass following, has held its own, with an increasing number of housing complexes, schools and colleges now having courts on their premises. “I understand that basketball can't match the craze for cricket but our numbers are good,” says B. Hanumanthappa of the near-two-decade-old Devanga Union Sports Club.
“Basketball is extremely popular at the school and college level; hence, youngsters want to learn,” he adds.
There also exist options such as snooker which, though considered slightly left-field, are attractive for other reasons.
“The thing with cue sports is that people of any age can play them,” says S. Natraj of the Karnataka State Billiards Association, which conducts an annual summer camp on its premises. “They're very recreational. People want to learn so they can go play with their friends. Sport is about having fun,” he says.
