Playing ball | José Antonio Cachaza's 'Breaking Into Cricketland'
José Antonio Cachaza talks about his new book, breaking into cricketland, on the challenges of selling football to indians
Q. What was your mandate in India?
Q. What was your mandate in India?
To establish LaLiga—Spain’s professional football league—as a household name for Indian sports fans, ultimately increasing its appeal and commercial value across the entire subcontinent.
Q. Would you say you succeeded?
Mostly, yes. It was a largely successful operation; however, some projects didn’t turn out exactly as planned, and others never left the drawing board. In the book, I discuss our successes, but I also make a point of addressing those initiatives that fell short or remained unrealised.
Q. Why does cricket have such a stranglehold on the Indian imagination? Does football even stand a chance?
Cricket functions in India much like football does in Spain: it is an integral part of the collective mindset. Consequently, it occupies almost the entire media landscape and attracts 90 per cent of all sports investment. That said, football is carving out its space as India’s second sport. Beyond its traditional strongholds in Bengal, Goa, Kerala and the Northeast, it is growing rapidly among the youth in metropolitan areas.
Q. What did you learn about India during your seven-year stint here?
I learned that I will never learn enough. I also discovered that beneath the apparent chaos, there is always a deeper, underlying order.
Q. Was there something about India that infuriated you?
As I say in the introduction of the book, the total lack of respect for a proper queue in India was the one thing that always got to me.
