I didn’t watch the football World Cup. I avoid most global sporting events if India isn’t winning, which means I can’t watch anything other than cricket, which I have never liked. So, I inadvertently end up not watching sports at all. It’s not India’s fault, naturally, because we only have around 1.4 billion people. It’s unfair for anyone to expect sporting excellence when we are such a small nation.

This column isn’t about the unfairness of sports though; it’s about being a possible host nation. A host state, to be more precise. I read a lot about Qatar and what the event did for it in terms of public relations, and realised it could be just what the government of Maharashtra needs to brush up its own image on the global stage. It struck me just how amazing it would be for the world’s greatest footballers to make their way along the Western Express Highway on their way to a magical new stadium built somewhere outside the city, and how the world’s journalists would then turn their gaze to the wonder that is Bombay.