Fan pressure taking the joy out of sport

It is easy to hear an “Ooh!” and “Aah!” on the pitch – sometimes alongside the crack of a bone, sometimes as an audition for screenplay. Yet, the newspapers and the digital interface are filled with many such “Oohs” and “Aahs”; and it is not uncommon to see so many Alex Fergusons and Arsene Wengers. In fact, they might even make it into your classroom or meet you along your bus ride home.

The newspapers seem to know better whether Neymar fits into Barcelona than Barcelona itself

The ‘typical unpaid sport pundits’ might be able to seemingly comprehend the details and nature of multimillion dollar deals, but they won’t be able to prepare a squad of Mohan Bagan for the next I-League. So much has become the hoopla around the fad of football that it is difficult to differentiate a player from a mere commentator. Like Mr Dhoni once rightly said “… every Tom, Dick and Harry have an opinion about the game”.

The newspapers seem to know better whether Neymar fits into Barcelona than Barca itself. Twitter seems to be chirping a lot about Torres’s miss from “just in front of the goal”. What they miss out on is the tremendous pressure at the back of the mind – one that can make the tweeter faint.

How much of an impact does all this talk have on the mind of a player while he or she is walking through the tunnel and onto the field? How much does it matter, what the stands are going to echo?

After all, you started playing simply because you loved playing that sport as a kid. So when, all of a sudden, people start telling you whether you deserve to play or not, does it serve right? As it was in the case of Sachin Tendulkar.

And all it takes is one single match, just a moment or two here and there, to turn around the entire wave. That’s all – whether it be the drop of a Ronaldinho, or the rise of a Balotelli.

Throughout the history of sport – especially World Cups and even more, those of football – there are ample cases wherein players have gone into unhealthy, undesired states of mind post an upset… primarily because of the way they were treated after.

But who’s saying “it’s wrong”? All one is drawing attention to is the sprinkle of thoughts that carry off the field and how it must have an impact on the field, if at all it does. It does, directly or indirectly, perhaps.

At such a time, it is a great asset to be a silent player –one who does not nag like Serena Williams. In other words, it is great to be mostly Roger Federer and let the sport be a medium of expression. Except if you’re a Lance Armstrong or a Tiger Woods, of course – because then you would have a lot of explaining to do, by default.

After all, even though the pen (here keyboard) is mightier than the sword, it is easier to hit the alphabet than to hit the right corner.

Isn’t it?