{"id":10735,"date":"2006-09-05T15:50:45","date_gmt":"2006-09-05T15:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2006\/09\/05\/live-and-kickin\/"},"modified":"2006-09-05T15:50:45","modified_gmt":"2006-09-05T15:50:45","slug":"live-and-kickin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2006\/09\/05\/live-and-kickin\/","title":{"rendered":"Live and Kickin’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Football Fever for Nihal<\/h3>\n
\"\"Get ready for Premiership football like you\u2019ve never heard it before\u2026 not just all the goals, not just all the gossip, but also all the glamour and all the grimness that\u2019s all part of the beautiful game, served up at breakneck speed and mixed in with the hottest big tunes and even hotter hyper-interactivity from listeners.<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

If it doesn\u2019t sound like a traditional football show then that\u2019s maybe because it\u2019s aimed at very untraditional fans \u2013 for the other big difference about this Saturday afternoon spectacular is that it\u2019s on the BBC\u2019s Asian Network, aimed at an audience not normally noted for its football fanaticism.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody immediately associates Asians with cricket, and yet there are hordes of Asian football fans too,\u201d points out the programme\u2019s presenter, Nihal \u2013 another break with convention, as he\u2019s first and foremost a music DJ, both on Radio 1 where he and Bobby Friction play the best Asian beats each Wednesday night, and also a hot property in clubs worldwide. \u201cYou only have to see the likes of Wolves and Sunderland, who have their own Punjabi armies,\u201d he continues enthusiastically. \u201cSo we want to represent just how fanatical Asians really are about football.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps surprisingly, it\u2019s actually the most popular sport among the Asian community nowadays \u2013 so the time is ripe for the new show.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the World Cup there were Asians going abroad to support England and there was a lot of coverage of that in the media,\u201d Nihal comments. \u201cWe want to make sure that we keep that going and it\u2019s not just a press story on a quiet day; it is something that is genuinely there. But also, while Asians support teams and are really into football, there is still a distinct lack of Asians actually going to the games and feeling like they would be made welcome, and that\u2019s also a barrier that we want to overcome.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

And they\u2019ve got the support of the Premiership and the FA to that end. \u201cThey\u2019re very excited about the show,\u201d Nihal grins. \u201cWith their help, and from the clubs themselves, we\u2019re going to go out and do interviews with the players.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But true to the show\u2019s ethos, they won\u2019t be asking the same-old standard soccer stuff\u2026 <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to play them Asian tracks and see which ones they rate and which ones they don\u2019t like as much!\u201d Nihal smiles, explaining, \u201cmusic is a great in with players; they love to club, they love to go out and dance and some of them are very, very knowledgeable about music. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd music and football are so interlinked these days. Kids\u2019 shows used to want pop stars, actors, film stars \u2013 now they want footballers as well. Football is ghetto glamour. I\u2019m intrigued by footballers \u2013 often people have this perception of them as being overpaid, arrogant, petulant people; we just want to get on a level with them, chat to them, have a laugh, ask them some cheeky questions,\u201d he says, adding that the show will tend towards the irreverent.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll probably get into a bit of trouble,\u201d he admits, adding with a grin, \u201cand if we don\u2019t we\u2019ll be disappointed!\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Tottenham Hotspur fan Nihal \u2013 who went to the same school as Glenn Hoddle in the die-hard Spurs area of Essex in which he grew up \u2013 is expecting some stick for his unapologetically partisan views, but the 35-year-old is relishing the chance of some fierce and funny footy banter with listeners. \u201cIt\u2019s my personality,\u201d he laughs. \u201cIf I dish it out I\u2019ll have to be able to take it.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He\u2019s recently used his outspoken side and gift of the gab as part of London\u2019s 2012 Olympics bid and continues to be involved in the Olympics areas of education and the arts. \u201cI want the disenfranchised kids who live around that area, and indeed up and down the country, to see how the Olympic movement can relate to them and how they can relate to it. It\u2019s a horrible word, but how are they going to be stakeholders in that Olympic vision?\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of posh people from the Establishment talking about that \u2013 our job is to make sure they do something about it. I hope I\u2019m strong enough and brave enough to be able to do that.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also pushing the agenda of the arts to the establishment at the British Council where he recently became a board member. \u201cThe British Council is all Sir this and Lord that, so getting a joker like me involved is quite interesting for them!\u201d he grins. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Nihal certainly has a busy schedule. He has also been deputising on prime-time Radio 1 recently and running his regular Bombay Bronx club night \u2013 which raises money for tsunami victims and Teardrop Relief \u2013 but he was determined to take on the football show as well. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honour for me,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cI wanted to do a show for the Asian Network that could connect with the wider \"\"world, and it\u2019s also amazing to do a show that\u2019s not purely music, because my life has revolved around music for so many years now \u2013 although I absolutely adore it and it\u2019s the very core of what I am.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Inevitably then music will be a key part of the show, setting the mood with the big Asian tunes and promising the pace and energy of a North London derby. \u201cI\u2019ll be playing tracks that are going to make you get up and make you as excited as we are \u2013 but we\u2019ll break that track halfway through if we have to because someone\u2019s just scored a goal,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to get listeners up on the calls, on the texts, on email,\u201d he continues. \u201cWe want to talk to them, find out where they are, what they\u2019re doing, who they support, who they want to slag off, what player played brilliantly, which decision should not have happened \u2013 we\u2019re totally interactive.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

And while it\u2019s very definitely a Premiership show, there is a real Asian vibe to it, enhanced by the match reporters. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t going to be a Steve, a Phil or a Kevin doing those match reports \u2013 it\u2019ll be a Sanjay or a Raj, or even a Juggy D who\u2019s a big Asian artist,\u201d explains Nihal. \u201cI think that once people hear an Asian voice coming from a Premiership ground saying \u2018This is happening, I\u2019m here, the atmosphere is amazing,\u2019 people will feel more empowered to go; there are a lot of Asians who do go but there\u2019s a lot more who could go. What we want to overcome is the psychological barrier.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

While Nihal reckons this will eventually happen naturally, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to speed things along a bit \u2013 which might also help encourage more Asians to play professionally. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that being a footballer is not something that Asian parents of our parents\u2019 generation want to see their kids doing,\u201d he says. \u201cVery often you\u2019ll find that footballers come from deprived, working-class backgrounds and in the Asian working-class the onus is to try and get out of that by more orthodox means, whether that be business or law or medicine or wherever because it doesn\u2019t matter how many hours you put in to training in football, you just may not ever make it. But the Asian Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen is out there. He may be just six or seven years old now, but he exists \u2013 and hopefully the Asian Network can help discover him.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI think also there are cultural barriers from within football itself. It was often said 25 years ago that black people weren\u2019t strong enough to play football \u2013 they didn\u2019t have that grit, that attitude. No one\u2019s going to say that to Thierry Henry or Patrick Vieira or Ledley King now\u2026 so those things change. Now there\u2019s [Asian players] Zesh Rehman at Fulham and Michael Chopra, who was at Newcastle and is now at Cardiff. It\u2019s slow progress but the third generation \u2013 the kids of the second generation, like myself \u2013 my kids, when I hopefully have them, and then their kids, will be brought up in a time where football is acceptable in that respect. My father grew up in Sri Lanka and would never have thought this is a career path for his son \u2013 though I\u2019m not sure that a radio DJ is anything he\u2019s particularly proud of either! But that will change, because we\u2019re raised here, raised around football.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Though he wouldn\u2019t have wanted him to play, Nihal\u2019s dad was a trailblazer in that he took his family to White Hart Lane in the early Eighties.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to think back. In the Eighties racism was very high in football grounds. Luckily Tottenham is one of the least racist grounds you\u2019ll ever go to, but it was incredibly brave of my father \u2013 probably na\u00efvely brave \u2013 to take a little Asian family along, sitting there surrounded by white people. We must have been the only Asians in the ground!\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

It ignited a passion in Nihal that still burns fiercely \u2013 although he admits that his own playing skills leave something to be desired. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a rowdy player \u2013 there is something of the Zidane in me at times! When I first started a job in music PR we had a five-a-side team and the first time we played I got sent off! As a good Buddhist, which is what I am, I should be a little bit more chilled out on the field but I am very competitive. I need more skill and less anger!\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But he exhorts everyone to experience a live game. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being part of it, being at a football ground, for anyone who\u2019s never been, is impossible to describe \u2013 that feeling of being part of something so huge, maybe 25,000 people all shouting the same thing together; jumping up and hugging a bloke you\u2019ve never met before in your life, people all around each other just going mad. It\u2019s amazing what it brings out of you \u2013 the most primeval, carnal, tribal instincts. If I go to a football game I wouldn\u2019t be able to do a radio show the day after. I\u2019d literally be hoarse \u2013 you spend the whole 90 minutes screaming at people!\u201d he laughs. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the Asian community needs to realise that football grounds are welcoming places. People are too busy hating the other team to hate you! And football grounds themselves take racism very seriously \u2013 if they hear racist chants the stewards will have those people taken out of the ground and they will be banned, and that\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He adds with a laugh, \u201cThat\u2019s if the fans themselves don\u2019t turn round and give the guy a walloping. How can you possibly be racist and be a football supporter in 2006? There is not a team in the country that has an all-white team. Football these days is all-inclusive; it is the preserve of everybody who loves it.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s keen to stress that he\u2019s not on any bandwagon. \u201cThis show isn\u2019t about, oh let\u2019s kick racism out of football. It\u2019s about loving and enjoying football. We\u2019re not going to be moaning, we\u2019re celebrating football.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

‘Kickin off with Nihal’, every Saturday, 3pm – 5pm, the BBC Asian Network<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Football Fever for Nihal Get ready for Premiership football like you\u2019ve never heard it before\u2026 not just all the goals, not just all the gossip, but also all the glamour and all the grimness that\u2019s all part of the beautiful game, served up at breakneck speed and mixed in with the hottest big tunes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}