Cricket has conjured up things for fans. For fans a win or a loss is not only cause joy or pain it affects their life beyond that. Cricket fans love their team for winning cause and criticize them for losing cause. A bilateral series between either India and Pakistan or India and Bangladesh is a festival of earning national glory, limitless joy, and outburst of loads of emotions.
Fans are the innermost propitiation of the game. Without them the game is nothing. Thus, like the game these omnipresent fans have different characteristics. When a match takes place with opponent like Australia, Pakistan or now Bangladesh we Indian fans love to see the game for cricketing values until the game gets over. We okay with a win. But if we loss then we need to find out solace to medicate our emotions. Fans get involved in endless debate that ditches all logics.
Nobody cares how prolifically our team reached the World Cup semi-final. Only a series loss to rejuvenated Bangladesh is enough to cut the throat of our yesterday’s beloved team.
However, not every fan does that, along with the evolution of Indian cricket the fans have also changed themselves. From the 2015 world cup to the recent India’s tour of Bangladesh I have observed different kinds of fans in this sub-continent that span from jingoistic to the optimist.
So let’s discuss in brief the Different types of fans we witness in Cricket –
The Pessimist: With the evolution of the time our majority of jingoistic cricket fans have evolved themselves into the pessimist. We have the maximum number of pessimist fans. Once upon a time they used to love the game for their favourite cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. With the retirement of these greats this fan group has taken retirement from the game as well. Nowadays, they acquired a habit of hating current Indian players. They don’t watch the game, but whenever they get a bad news about Dhoni and co. they jump into the cauldron and start abusing Indian ODI skipper and the team. This mania is apparently visible now after India’s 2-1 series loss to Bangladesh.
If their favourite player fails to perform they think India will obviously lose the match, which triggers an influx of emotions in their mind. They forget all logics and stats. Emotions lead them to pessimism. Off field issues like ‘Anushka was the reason behind Virat’s bad form’ after losing the world cup semi-final to Australia was a saddening yet clear observation for them. Many even made mom and pop of Indian bowling attack which have made us proud by winning 7 consecutive matches for the first time in the CWC.
The ridiculous: For the time being, Bangladesh is leading this fan category. They have made a mockery of themselves during the World Cup and just concluded bilateral series victory over India. They have added a new chapter to the category of cricket fans. Before the quarter-final game against India a politically diversified nation got united hopping that the “Bangladesh Tigers” should win the match and that would get them rid of arrogant India.
A 25,000 capacity stadium celebrated Ambabti Rayudu’s wicket off Mashrafe Mortaza that actually kissed his pad and landed on wicketkeeper’s land. They, did not laugh, instead they celebrated vociferously as it was for them the revenge of the CWC “no ball”.
What they have not done to make themselves ridiculous? First they struggled to fight with a thirty second Star Sports made “mauka mauka” ad. They claimed the ad was India’s propaganda to dent Bangladesh’s image. Secondly, after losing the game they prayed to the God for severe punishment for umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould, as they alleged, both umpires laid out a conspiracy to oust Bangladesh from the world cup.
Finally, they defeated India at home, but still they cried for that “no” ball. They celebrated their series victory abusing Indians.
The political issues caused layer on their eyes as a result they did not see the wicket of Imrul Kayes off Umesh Yadav’s delivery. Umpire denied their appeal as snicometre failed to work on that occasion. They reached the quarter-final after getting Chris Jordan’s controversial run-out at the crucial juncture of the match. Someone has written an open letter to BCCI knowing India should win the world cup as the matches had been fixed. They brought out procession to celebrate Australia’s win over India in the semi-final. How could they do this? Do they understand what actually cricket is about?
The Hide and Seek fans: This category is rapidly growing with the increasing scarcity of time. They love the game but time does not give them company. You will find them in road, in office, even in the paddy field asking for score updates. This category has an extension as well. Those love excitement, can’t sit and watch low voltage final like the the one Australia and New Zealand had yielded. Either they sit outside the club door or will engage themselves in something else. They come back in the room in regular interval to know the score. If they find the game is tilting towards excitement then they must forget their engagement and rest of the time they spend sitting before the TV set until the match gets over.
The Jingoistic fans: They think cricket is the substitute of war. For them to all revenge cricket has the answer, for them cricket is the only apparatus which can make their nation proud. When team wins they make the most remarkable celebration. But, when their team bowed down to the opponent they can’t tolerate.
First, start abusing players then make a march to the player’s house with stone, piece of brick and channelize their all energies restored for celebration on the player’s house ignoring innocent human being living in the room with misery. During this world cup win in Multan Pakistan fans have brought out a symbolic procession with caskets of dead players, one after losing the group match to India and second one after quarterfinal loss to Australia.
India fans are not lacking behind in this aspect as they trolled Virat and Anushka on social media for Virat’s mistimed pull at the crucial juncture of the semifinal match. The cruel paradox is that the same fans clapped when the face of Anushka floated on the TV screen as Virat appeared on the filed with the bat. One KRK who thought himself as celebrity is the most high profile entrant to this category. He asked fans on twitter to pelt stone on Anushka’s house. How could their emotions change within a minute? The good news is that this fan group is gradually diminishing.
The optimist: They love the game cricket most; always love to cheer for their team, they have the ability to cope with win and loss. They never abuse their team. This fan lives in maximum number in South Africa, Australia, and England and in New Zealand. For example South Africa after losing the humdinger semifinal to New Zealand went back to home where their fans gave them warm welcome. Indian cricket team has found new generation of fans that have been supporting them with their heart and soul as the team has won seven consecutive games in a row for the first time in the CWC. India lost the series to Bangladesh jingoistic fans made vociferous attack on MS Dhoni and co.
But, this fan acknowledged Bangladesh’s rise in cricket and never give up supporting Indian team. They had set a new history by brought out a protest match in New Delhi against news channel- Times Now very next day of India’s semifinal defeat to Australia. The news channel had tried to tame the “Men in Blue” with “Shame in Sydney”, but fans did not buy it. They hit back with #shameontimesnow on Twitter.
The cynics: For them every match is fixed. Generally they ignore the normal bilateral series. But when a high voltage match like India vs. Pakistan takes place they can’t ignore that. With other fans they love to see India’s win. But when India lose a series to a country like Bangladesh, they express their frustration with most disgusting adjectives. Many even compare players with the most downgraded animal.
Brand new IPL fans: IPL dishes out loads of entertainment for two months every year. IPL has generated a new base. This category has incredible number of female fans. They don’t love game but love IPL for being a T20 tournamnet. Thye love it for glomour that Sharaukh Khan Preity Zinta and their Bollywood co. brings to the game; and for boys the cheer leaders add zeal to their excitement.