“Manchester United or me You have to decide now!” she said. To her, it was a question, a choice. To him, a no-brainer. They parted ways. That is more or less the gist of the final chapter of many relationships involving a man obsessed with sport. (Most) men, for ages, have prioritised sport over women, some even to the point of jeopardising their relationships. The concept was, recently, used by Star Sports to promote football. The commercial shows Mahendra Singh Dhoni lying to his wife, Sakshi, about having back pain in order to enjoy a game of football. “I am an avid BPL fan and I just played out a real situation in front of the camera. If I am not busy with cricket, I am always busy with BPL during weekends. Football is very close to my heart,” Dhoni said in a press conference announcing his partnership with Star Sports. Men have lied and will continue to lie to their partners for the sake of sport. An avid Chelsea fan, Vishnu Mohan, Kottayam, narrates — “I, once told my girlfriend, I had a bad headache and needed to sleep. I got so involved in the match that I started leaving comments on Facebook about the match. She saw it the next day and that was it.” The emotion of sport can often spill over onto relationships. Fights ensuing in the aftermath of one’s partner’s favourite team’s loss is not new. Women often make the mistake of trying to console their partners following bad results instead of just letting them be. Men like to be left alone to brood over the result and get over it. When interfered with, backlashes can be surprisingly ruthless. Men’s obsession with video games is another pastime women find annoying. Rukmini. K, a Mumbai-based designer, found out the hard way. “I was trying to discuss wedding arrangements with my partner and he, an avid fan of ‘Clash of clans’ game, staring into his I pad tells me - Can we do this later because I’m an elder in the clan and need time to devise my strategy.” If there is an inanimate object that is the root cause of most fights, it has to be the TV remote. Preethi, wife of cricketer, Ravichandran Ashwin, reminisces fondly: “I enjoy watching cricket and going to matches to watch Ashwin play but when there is no cricket on TV, I prefer watching Tennis while Ashwin unwinds watching football so there is an inevitable scramble for the TV remote. It’s a lot of fun though.” Sport can also be the glue that holds a relationship together when they share interest for a sport. “I have always enjoyed the full support of my family when it comes to sport. But I have occasionally lied about having practice to hang out with friends,” confesses Tom Joseph, Indian volleyball player. But of course there have been isolated instances where women have triumphed in the sport vs women war. One such famous incident was when an Arsenal fan, Luke McQueen, in order to win back his love wore the t-shirt of Arsenal’s arch rivals, Tottenham Hotspurs, stood in front of the Arsenal stadium and apologised to his girlfriend holding a placard reading “I love you Sarah”. The incident didn’t go down well with football fans because if there ever is one thing worse than betraying your girlfriend it’s switching loyalties to the team you support. To all those women struggling to come to terms with relationships to such fanatics, come on, be a sport!
