Hurt Locker: The confused mind of an Indian Cricket Fan

Probably a flag march protest is the only pending thing that is to happen for the current performance of Team India. It’s not going to be Bangladesh from now on, but rather an Indianesque performance by any team which performs below par given their strength.

Rather than looking at reasons why such a famed batting line up collapses, excuses are being searched and most times, they’re repetitive. ‘Bring back Ganguly’ or ‘Sack Laxman’ kind of slogans are not going to find a way for the future. When critics say that this debacle overseas is due to lack of awareness in youngsters of the conditions abroad and majorly due to IPL, they forget that the youngsters are shielded by the best in the world who have played a lot of county cricket during their younger days. When players like Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman guard the top, players like Kohli would have been in a relaxed mood that his heroes will fire and when his turn comes all of a sudden, he remains helpless under pressure given the fact that it’s his first tour.

There is always a debate going on; whether 1983 team was best or the 2003 one or the 2007 one; whether Sachin Tendulkar or Kapil Dev; Ganguly or Dhoni; Laxman or Rohit etc. But one thing is the same amongst all Indian Cricket Fans – an oral game of personalities will start only with Sachin TendulkaR and then continue with Rahul Dravid and definitely not a Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal.

An Indian Cricket fan is never allowed to cherish or neglect anything for long – be it a huge victory or a drastic collapse. Hence, there is no time to analyze anything that happened. Similar is the state of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Team loses or rather whitewashed abroad, Board decides against an inquiry followed by a thumping (?) home series victory followed by ‘I said so’ comment from who so ever concerned. As every cricket expert says, the Indian Board is concerned more of the celebrities than the game being played.

The moods of Indian fans are as consistent as Team India – switches as per the result. That is why we can never be termed as Cricket fans but just an Indian fan. We never throng the stadiums for a neutral game but the noise will be alarmingly high even when one of our International stars is part of a team. IPL gets you the crowd but not the Champions League. Going deeper, we are just fans of the International Indian team. Not many will even give a thought to the Ranji Trophy games which is supposed to be the last step to become International.

To be honest, fanaticism is much worse that what we think it is. We celebrate, we burst crackers and we even go to the extent of praying for them forgetting ourselves whenever the team wins but then the same team might get thrashed the very next day and more worse is attacking individuals. We forget that Cricket is a team sport and just one individual performing is not going to reap. We voice for their retirement, sack them off their posts, drop them down the order, drop them from the team etc. But when such things are aired on television, we speak about how irresponsible the media is and why should a player like Rahul Dravid retire after just one awful series and why Laxman being centered out when the whole team hasn’t performed. Their past crucial performances are to be considered. To counter this set of fans there is another set who constantly and consistently (at least here) voice for youth and they are countered by another set (which may include the first set) saying they lack experience and there is another set (includes fans from all groups) who are unaware of what is actually happening, who blindly say, Tendulkar, even when woken from their sleep.

There is yet another common trait among all set of Indian Cricket Fans apart from Tendulkar; that is, whenever a player gets injured and is out of a touring squad and then when the team loses then every one gets to the opinion that had that injured player been in the squad then the tide would have done a U-turn. How superstitious! It applies not only to an injured player but applies to a bench-warmer too. The best part is Team India, most times, on tour, makes sure that such a theory is proved.

If there is something which every Indian fan knows but then ignores it as if it doesn’t exist is that Cricket is a business – every run and every wicket gets dedicated to sponsors. It’s not like if these many numbers of boundaries are scored then this much amount will be given to charity but then its just the sponsor’s name prefixed with each boundary or wicket.

Cricketers in India are treated as Gods’ and are considered to be the nation’s pride. This thinking makes us revolt against few highly rated players when they fail to reach expectations. It’s a known fact that the BCCI is a private organization and their employees (cricketers) are not eligible to play for the nation. They can very well go ahead like a tennis player playing his matches partnering a player from any other country. Yet we portray them as national heroes and criticize when they talk about wanting enough rest and if they lost a very close encounter. Nadal is allowed to feel proud (and we too join him) after that marathon but not the men in blue.

Like we all get our salaries monthly and at times promotions and hikes, the Cricketers are also contracted to the Board and they are also rated. It’s just that they work as a cricketer and we work as a software engineer (for instance); their field is cricket and ours is computers; they are under pressure most times and we too amongst our peers. But we can ask our managers why do we need to something but they don’t have that liberty. Failing to do once mean watch out your future steps in the field. We don’t have a de-promotion but they have and the worst of all is going back to state level games which are at a lower caliber than Ranji Trophy.

We, at most times don’t bother the defeat but then much happier when Australia fell from their top ranking, just like how every other house cheered the fall of Slytherin when Gryffindor won the house cup. Here again, we knew that India didn’t achieve the top test ranking but then other teams failed and India kept on playing in their home conditions.

In the end, everything is business. So can an Indian Cricket fan make sure he minds his own business? But then it’s impossible. More than the players themselves and the board, Indian Cricket fans are more concerned of the team’s welfare. Agree, they criticize and speak un-parliamentarily when failed; then, it’s the same fans who pray for the team and support and treat them as Gods. Let’s hope we get a star team instead of a team of stars.

P.S: If you are confused and think as what nonsense has been written then I guess I have done my part. This is the Indian Fan and the above is his/her mind.