Eye of the spectator: An emotional fan's roller-coaster journey with Indian cricket
Cricket as a game from a modest beginning has come a long way particularly in India and has now evolved into a big entertainment industry. There were many contributing factors for the phenomenal growth of the game called Cricket.
The advent of TV telecast coupled with sponsors, franchise, commercials, and whatnot has made Cricket a lucrative business and a box office hit. However, there is one constant factor contributing silently to the cause in all these years of Cricket’s stupendous growth and that is the ever passionate spectator.
In the modern era of Cricket where gate collection is not looked upon as the bread and butter for its survival, the importance of the spectator in the dynamics is conveniently lost and forgotten. After all, ultimately it is for him the game is being played and whatever commercial benefit arising out of the action is only incidental and not of direct relevance.
All along it has been the spectators who braved the oppressive weather and unhygienic environment, waited in long queues and thronged the grounds all over the world and kept this wonderful game alive.
This article is aimed at expressing the emotions of an ardent cricket fan in times of triumph, turmoil, soul-crushing losses, nail-biting wins, and heartbreaking defeats. Besides, the sentiment that dominates the watching of a cricket match is also touched upon.
Most of this narrations are based on personal experience which I feel is most common with all cricket fans. The ardent cricket fan referred to in this article is none other than the writer himself.
Triumphs and more triumphs
As in life, in cricket too events happen in a cluster whether it is mayhem or triumph. I could witness the successive triumphs of my team starting from the World Cup 1983 to Benson and Hedges World Series Cup in 1985 right till the Rothmans Cup in Sharjah in the same year where India managed to defend 125 against Pakistan.
It was smooth sailing all the way for India during those fantastic times. The Indian fan army thought that this was going to last forever. The subsequent events proved how wrong we were in our assessment of our team’s fortune.
The kind of mood swing to which one is subjected to depending upon the outcome of a cricket match is hard to explain and has to be experienced. To overcome this roller-coaster emotional ride, I had devised a simple strategy from the beginning and that was not to watch cricket alone. The crowd presence even at home was very much needed mainly not to share the ecstasy but primarily to endure the agony at times of heartbreak.
There is an inherent weakness in watching cricket as a crowd as the presence of some not so lucky constituent in the crowd invariably spells doom to the fortunes of the team that we are supporting.