Eye of the spectator: An emotional fan's roller-coaster journey with Indian cricket 

Salient traits of a fervent cricket fan

Sudhir Kumar Chaudhary - The die-hard Indian cricket fan

# A fervent cricket fan always thinks he knows everything about the game and he is the 2.O version of Neville Cardus. If a newcomer to the game asks him any silly questions, he would get annoyed.

# He is always active and buzzing at the peak of a cricket season and the moment there is a lengthy break between matches, he feels desolate.

# He always associates his life events with what is happening on the Cricket field. For instance, when India first won the World Cup in 1983 I was in college and when India won the World Cup for the second time after 28 years in 2011, I watched the match with my son ensuing mute celebration after the win.

Wherever in the World the Indian players go, they are worshipped by the fans

# If things don’t go his way, the typical fan would hold everyone in his sight responsible for the loss. It might just be a casual visitor or sometimes the most convenient target will be the poor spouse whose presence would be labeled as the bad omen.

# Whenever a fan comes across people talking about cricket, he would simply gate crash and express his learned opinion. He would easily gel with another cricket fan and they command mutual respect.

# Cricket fans, when on the move, somehow get connected to the happenings in the middle irrespective of whether they are connected to the internet or not. In good old days, I used to carry a pocket transistor with me wherever I went, whether to college or workplace.

That was slowly replaced by the televisions in the showrooms on the roadside where one had to surge forward into the crowd to have a glimpse of the action and mainly the scorecard. Now we have everything readily available in our palms for the constant live update. But the old thrill of following the game on and off is somehow missing. It is like possessing 5000 favorite songs in a pen drive and you don’t know which one to choose from.

# The plight of a cricket fan is sometimes even worse than a politician and he should keep changing his views with every change in the match situation. Sometimes, the unexpected change in the course of a match will make him eat his own words. But he will still put up a brave face amidst criticism and even when a question mark is raised against his game wisdom.