Tonight sees the final league game of The Hero Indian Super League 2016, between Kerala Blasters and North East United, and what a game it should turn out to be. Kerala Blasters need just a point to reach the 4th and final semi final spot which is still up grabs whilst North East United must win the game to do likewise. Blasters will have the benefit of playing in front of their own crowd which could number up to 60,000, so they must start the game as favourites, but we have seen many away victories in this season's league campaign and another would not be a surprise tonight. Already qualified are Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata but the result of tonight's game then dictates the final placing in the league and therefore determines who plays who in the two legged semi-finals. Mumbai will definitely finish top of the table and will play whoever finishes fourth and second will play third over two legs, i.e. home and away. The final placing once, the last game has finished, will be decided on points total as per normal, but if a team are tied on same points then it will go to head-to-head fixtures from the seasons results, this would kick in if Kerala drew tonight's match and were then level on 20 points with Atletico de Kolkata. ATK beat Kerala earlier on in the league so they would stay in third and Kerala qualify in fourth. Now we have a week off from matches as teams prepare for those semi-finals and we are based at the Trident Hotel, Nariman Point, Mumbai, which just happens to be the same hotel as the England test match team and the Sky Sports commmentary crew. I have already been able to see and have a chat with Mike Atherton and Ian Botham who both seem to be having a good time here in India. With the Test Match starting on the 8th of this month, in four days time, I think we will manage to get at least a couple of days at the Wankhede Stadium compliments of Star Sports. Now that the season is coming to end we lose most of Crew B, seen in the first photo, who are a wonderful gang of specialist electrical engineers, audio engineers, lighting and cameramen. All good guys who graft really hard and party even harder. It has been a pleasure to work with them over the last 10 weeks and I look forward to working with them all again in the future.
This morning I took a twenty five minute stroll from the Trident Hotel over to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, fully recovered after the 2008 terrorist attack, opposite the Gateway for India which was built by the British Raj in 1924. There were thousands of tourists and locals having time to enjoy the views which stretch back across the Arabian Sea which wraps itself around the reclaimed land of Colaba. The sad thing about Mumbai is that as well as being the Bollywood film industry capital and having wealth in extremes, there are still and always have been, extremes of poverty. For every sight of magnificence there is also a picture that is hard to process, how can so many have so much and yet so many still have nothing. I know and appreciate that it is how Mumbai is, but it is still, and always will be, a shocking and sobering experience.
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AuthorRussell Osman is a former England & Ipswich Footballer, 4 Handicap Golfer and Father of 3. Archives
April 2018
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