5 things Indian cricket fans should stop doing

Cricket is a passion in India, a passion that no other country can match. The fans are at once knowledgeable and prone to emotions when they talk about the game and the Indian cricket team in particular. However, there are a few things that the fans must and should stop doing, for it not only brings a bad name to the sport but also gives the wrong perception to the fans of other countries.

#1 Stop looking back at the 90s

For a majority of the fans, the 90s were the golden years for Indian cricket. Granted, there were many good players during that time, and with Sachin Tendulkar in his prime as well, it made for great tv. However, one has to remember that the team itself was never complete and there was always something missing from the team.

For all of Sachin Tendulkar’s heroics in the 1996 World Cup, we couldn’t get into the finals, and celebrated players like Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja had less than clean connections with all the match-fixing allegations.

Sometimes this look back to the 90s even extends to the other countries, with fans claiming the Australian and South African sides of the 90s being a lot tougher and filled with talent. Irrespective of whether that is true, it is insulting for the present generation to be beaten with the bat of a past player, pardon the pun.

Nostalgia is a funny thing and makes us sees everything in rose tinted glasses and makes us forget all the things that were bad then. While we might want to believe that things were better in the past, it is never the case, and if you look hard, you’ll find you complained a lot back then too.

So lets just enjoy the game and the entertainment value that all the talented players of this generation are providing us rather than longingly look at a time of which we have a very unbalanced memory of.

#2 Stop fighting over who is better

One of the most discussed topics among fans is always about which player is better. It is one thing to do it among the present set of players, but it is an entirely different thing to compare players of different generations.

One of the hotly debated topics is who was a better captain – Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni. Both captains were excellent by their own right, and to compare both of them would be to ignore the unique circumstances in which each player found himself in when taking over the team. What Ganguly had to do with the team he was given is nowhere similar to what Dhoni has had to do with the team that he inherited.

In similar fashion, fans tend to debate who was a better batsman or bowler, of different generations. Whether Sachin Tendulkar was better or Virat Kohli is more successful is a moot point, as the team they played in and the opposition they faced are entirely different. This usually means another discussion about which opposition was tougher, and it usually free falls into name calling after that.

#3 Stop getting too emotional about results/selections

If you were following the recently concluded Test series between India and Australia, you would think Virat Kohli committed a huge blasphemy by trying to go for the win. As the captain, he decided that the team was good enough and close enough to win the match against the mighty Aussies.

Had he won the game, it would set a very different tone to the series, giving India the upper hand. As things transpired, India went on to lose it, and out came the knives that Kohli should have drawn the game instead.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing. If he had indeed played for a draw, the same fans would have said that Kohli wasn’t a confident captain and should have tried to win. In fact, there have been so many intense reactions about the results of a sporting tie that it’s embarrassing.

Crowds pelting the houses of players would make you think that they cheated them all out a huge amount of money or ruined their lives. At the end of the day, its a game and there is bound to be winners and losers. Let’s not get so emotional about them.

#4 Stop pronouncing match-fixing for every win/loss

Have you ever encountered a fan who is quick to pronounce every unexpected win or loss the subject of match-fixing? Unfortunately, there are far too many who do that at the drop of a hat, especially after the scandal broke out towards the end of the 90s.

These days, it is the IPL that is the subject of this mindless speculation. Every game that goes to the last ball and results in a surprise win or loss is deemed to have been fixed, and for the fan that just wants to watch the game, it can get pretty irritating.

Yes, the game has suffered because of the match-fixing scandal; but if you are going to spend your time idly proclaiming games as fixed, then you might not as well watch the game, as not only are you not enjoying, you are spoiling for the rest of us too.

#5 Stop underrating sub-continental knocks

For every century that an Indian makes in sub-continent conditions, you see a bunch of fans coming out and saying that he could only do it because the conditions were favourable for him.

Here’s an analysis: all teams are good in their home conditions. And just because a player played a good knock in home conditions does not mean that the knock does not have any significance. Many a player has had to face the pressure of playing in foreign conditions because the thing at the back of their mind is the fear of failure. If they fail to make a good score in foreign conditions, fans will be out to criticise him, and that puts a lot more burden on the player than the freedom he would enjoy if he could just play his game.

Let the players be, and enjoy their knocks, irrespective of where they scored them. Before long, you may not be able to get to watch these talented set of players who are definitely better than the rest of India.