Indian Cricket Fans.Arrogant and selfish?

[SachDan]

Indian fans need to grow up By Suresh Menon Watching the Australia-South Africa series has been an education in how much India have lost in recent years as a cricketing nation. We may have the better players, more stadiums, infinitely more money and the loudest voice in world cricket but in one are we have regressed. Indian fans have, in recent years, become an embarrassment. It was wonderful to see the Melbourne crowd (around 42,000, which would be large in most stadiums, but filled less than half of MCG) responding to cricketʼs latest star Jean Paul Duminy. As the left hander approached his century, the crowds began to rev up, and when he got to the mark, they exploded, cheering with delight and letting the player know how much they appreciated his batting in a crisis. It was heart warming, it was old fashioned, it elevated the game itself. And this, from Australians, otherwise notorious for their ʽtoughnessʼ and refusal to concede an inch. To be tough is not to be boorish or foolishly jingoistic. Australians rose as one man at every stadium whenever Sachin Tendulkar went out to bat in the last series. They knew they were watching him for the last time, and it was a way of saying thank you for the many years of fighting batsmanship. Compare that with the reception another contemporary great, Javed Miandad, received in Bangalore during the 1996 World Cup. He was booed all the way to wicket. Today, a visiting cricketer has little chance of being roundly applauded in many of our stadiums. Centuries are received in stunned silence - as if by scoring a hundred, a Ponting or a Hayden has somehow upset the natural order of things. A boundary by a visitor almost passes unnoticed by a crowd which cheers every time an Ishant Sharma plays the forward defensive stroke. When did this turnaround take place? It wasnʼt always thus. There was a time when India did not necessarily have the best cricket team in the world, but they had the biggest crowds at the venues. And it was a fair crowd - appreciative of good performances on the field regardless of the team it came from. The Gavaskars and the Vishwanaths were heroes, but so were the visitors like Tony Greig and Derek Randall and Graham McKenzie and Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd. In the first-ever Test match hosted by Bangalore, Lloyd made a brutal 163 and he was cheered every run of the way; Alvin Kallicharan made a classy 124, and he too was cheered as much for his skill on a turning track as for his subtlety and touch. Now we expect Tendulkar to score a century every time he goes out to bat.. This modern great has been jeered at in his own hometown, Mumbai. The Indian captain has been booed in Kolkata. Indian spectators expect too much from their players, and are not shy of expressing their disappointment when things go wrong. Nor do they find it necessary to cheer a visiting player when he performs. This is embarrassing. Over the years, Indian players have been feted abroad: Gavaskar in the West Indies, Chandrasekhar in Australia, Kapil Dev in England, Tendulkar everywhere - yet few players from abroad have enjoyed similar status in India. Crowds pray that Ricky Ponting does not make another century and get closer to Tendulkar - everything is seen in terms of statistics. Duminy will remember his maiden century as much for what it meant to the team as for the way it was received by rival fans. Indiaʼs fandom can be summed up in the reaction to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. When India bowed out of the World Cup in 2007, the walls of his house under construction were pulled down and stones were pelted. Now his fans want to build a temple where he is the presiding deity. Enough said.

http://www.espnstar.com/opinion/columnists/column/item61775/

[DomainK]

I read upto the point where he compared Tendulkar and Miadad. Stopped reading after that.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Wish you all ICFers a very happy new year.. let this year be as fantastic and successful as 2008 and may be more. Let our crickets heroes bring more joy to all of us through their cricketing achievements - home and abroad. Time to retain the T20 WC as well... @ topic - stupid article by sresh menon. sounds more like a desparate article to seek attention via controvercial topic/headline. a cheap publicity stunt... Indian fans are one of the best in the world. Aussies and English are very partisan..

[Rajan]

If he had mentioned about Chennai crowds... I wud have respected his views a little bit, if he had mentioned about the chennai crowd and how the Pakistanis were given standing ovation despite beating the indian team after an heart breaking effort by sachin in 1999. he conveniently forgot it. Javed received that treatment from bangalore fans because he had acted too smart when he jumped like his true self when he tried to imitate Kiran more but ended up losing the previous world cup match in australia. u cant blame the crowd if the player in question had acted like an ape earlier. Javed lost his respect by behaving so stupidly in public. certainly that is no way to impress the viewing public . Andrew strauss received as much applauses as he could get in england when he scored his hundreds in chennai. the Barmy Army themselves appreciated the chennai crowd.but this sucker could not acknowledge this.he is blind to the good acts of indian fans. Suresh Menon and their ilk write for foreigners and have an axe to grind to show that they are willing to suck up to the english.the less said about him the better. he was one of the very few indian journalists who sided with Aussies during sydney gate.

[fineleg]

^ agree with Rajan...usually the chennai crowd even today appreciates good cricket even when it is the opposition player (with exception maybe of some very obnoxious cricketers) - but usually good cricket is appreciated no matter the player or his country. the author should have mentioned that.

[hitman1980]

I think the author need to understand India first ... We Indian r very passionate ... It hurts us when we see our team getting kicked all over the park ... U want us to appreciate the opposition at tht moment??? It is this passion which make India fans distinct from other fans from other countries .... It is the pin drop slience which kills the opposition batsman when he hits a four or six ... Its an Indian way to get involved in the game ... So I would say we understand game more then any fans from any other country ... Ofcourse it matters to fill the ground at the time of test matches but if they keep on forcing us to buy ticket for all 5 days then who the hell will buy?? India is developing and ppl nowdays have their priorities on work ... But they still cover the matches on cricinfo, rediff or at nearby tea stall in the break ... Just ask cricinfo how many times it get overloaded a day when India is playing ... And lastly respect to pakis?? my foot ... Mistake happens one time only and not everytime ... these pakis need to be kicked out everytime they try to land in India ... Tell them to make bombs and gun and turn their country into "city of god"

[Lurker]

Suresh Menon is right on the money about decline of Indian fans as a sporting crowd. There are more boos than cheers for the visiting players these days in India and everything from MonkeyGate to Pakistan ki M** ki C*** has happened over the past few years. Yes Indian fans would do well to be gracious crowd and generous host. Where I think SM's article fails is that he ignores the fact that this is pretty much the sentiment across the world today. Aussie, English, Saffer fans are not any more sporting than Indian fans these days. And while a Sachin Tendulkar may be cheered in Sydney by Down under crowd there is little support when a Harbhajan Singh walks in to bowl, no matter how stellar the latter performs. And if one thinks it is only the crowd today that is polarized please see the following article at Cricinfo today. The "esteemed" authors pick their best and worst of 2008 and is it merely a coincidence that almost every single one of the scribe picks his countrymen as the Superstar of the year? :winky:

Peter English Best: The return of Katich Worst: Australia's spin situation Dileep Premachandran Best: Sehwag in Galle Worst: Dravid in Chennai Will Luke Best: Flintoff's return Worst: The BCCI's influence Sriram Veera Best: Ganguly's year Worst: Cricket telecasts in India

http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/review2008/content/current/story/384606.html

[jf1gp_1]

Though he does make a few good points i am surprised how conveniently he chose to ignore crickets hottest property IPL and how foreign players were so well received including pakis and ponting.

[Lord]

Though he does make a few good points i am surprised how conveniently he chose to ignore crickets hottest property IPL and how foreign players were so well received including pakis and ponting.

but our own players were not well recieved then.sehwag didnt get appreciation in hyd aft reachin 50 n yuvraj was boo'ed in mumbai.u see my point. we( with the exception of chennai n b'lore) only appreciate home players,wen they r playing 4 india,its all indians n in IPL,its the city team members irrespective of country they hail from.

[punjabi_khota]

I think a lot of smaller centres like Kanpur are also gracious and non-partisan..since no one turns up to see test matches there, the applause is equally absent for both the teams.

[hitman1980]

but our own players were not well recieved then.sehwag didnt get appreciation in hyd aft reachin 50 n yuvraj was boo'ed in mumbai.u see my point. we( with the exception of chennai n b'lore) only appreciate home players' date='wen they r playing 4 india,its all indians n in IPL,its the city team members irrespective of country they hail from.[/quote'] Come on ... Y should they be well received... When playing for IPL they play for a businessman ... They play for money .. So where does the country thing comes in this .. Yuvraj was angry as if he was booed by Indians ... No .. He was booed by fans who love their franchisee ... We know he is a part of India but tht is a money minded tournament ... Money is the main priority there ... I don't think he is so stupid to understand tht .. We all loved the tournament and very badly wanted to see ones fav team to win ... So nothing wrong in booing them ... U can see the difference when they play for India ... They r treated like god .. Tht's y I say Indian fans r the most educated of all the fans in the world ... Appreciating doesn't mean u r a real fan or u know everything abt game .. Passion is the thing tht is needed most ... And we have it ... :)

[jf1gp_1]

but our own players were not well recieved then.sehwag didnt get appreciation in hyd aft reachin 50 n yuvraj was boo'ed in mumbai.u see my point. we( with the exception of chennai n b'lore) only appreciate home players' date='wen they r playing 4 india,its all indians n in IPL,its the city team members irrespective of country they hail from.[/quote'] how different is it from what we see in european club games or in any american sport ?

[Guest Hiten.]

Suresh Menon is right on the money about decline of Indian fans as a sporting crowd. There are more boos than cheers for the visiting players these days in India and everything from MonkeyGate to Pakistan ki M** ki C*** has happened over the past few years. Yes Indian fans would do well to be gracious crowd and generous host. Where I think SM's article fails is that he ignores the fact that this is pretty much the sentiment across the world today. Aussie, English, Saffer fans are not any more sporting than Indian fans these days. And while a Sachin Tendulkar may be cheered in Sydney by Down under crowd there is little support when a Harbhajan Singh walks in to bowl, no matter how stellar the latter performs. And if one thinks it is only the crowd today that is polarized please see the following article at Cricinfo today. The "esteemed" authors pick their best and worst of 2008 and is it merely a coincidence that almost every single one of the scribe picks his countrymen as the Superstar of the year? :winky: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/review2008/content/current/story/384606.html

- When the Australian fans chant "Sreesanth is a w@nk3r" they are just taking a 'friendly' jibe at Sreesanth, no ? - When drunk Australian fans throw an egg at Murali on a Street, the issue is buried by saying "there are *****holes everywhere". I am not saying Indian fans are the most saint out of all, but we are maligned time and again by some random Tom, Dick and harry. When Indian fans were purely mocking Symonds on his physical appearance and NOT based on his ethnicity, we are tagged as racists, isn't that just senile ? Now that is hypocrisy. Having said that, our past behavior (i.e. burning stadiums, burning effigies on time-to-time basis) have not helped us build a good rapport with other fans.

[fineleg]

blue brigade, we have to admit one thing: even if originally some folkz did not know 'monkey' calling is rascist, after it was made known - folkz still continued that. Some of us at ICF also did that - me included - desi cartman once pointed it to me, I apologized and deleted the post later. So, while it is wrong and rascist, sometimes we ourselves and Indian fans in stadium still repeated the monkey thing. We have to admit that it is wrong we did so after it was made clear it is rascist.

[f.b.m]

Crowds would be so boring if they were perfect and the same everywhere and "appreciate good cricket". Thats the last thing I want Indian crowds to be like. Its just not Indian. It would be like Rajinikanth making a serious movie or dappaankuthu veterans trying out ballet.(forgive me for the southern angle in this) I was so disappointed when Chennai gave a standing ovation to friggin Paul Collingwood who crawled to a painstaking 100. That was before I realized that they appreciated a match winning knock for India from the class act Collyflower himself. If anything, they should start making placards with snide remarks like "Wanted: Boycott's gran" when England is playing or " I wear a turban, can I bowl too?" when Ponting's batting, etc, etc.

[fineleg]

^ f.b.m. I have to disagree. Crowds being witty is different from being obnoxious or hooliganism. Or not even clapping when a well made century by opposition (forget Collingwood, I'm talking in general). Appreciating good cricket is always a good thing - there is no downside to it. Accepted - Not all of us can keep levelheaded always - we do waver in our mood. PS: Rajnikantaz has made some serious movies too. But they still have ishtyle in them! :winky:

[f.b.m]

I have to disagree. Crowds being witty is different from being obnoxious or hooliganism. Or not even clapping when a well made century by opposition (forget Collingwood, I'm talking in general).

Yes I dont have a problem with giving standing ovations to class players when they perform like in 1999 when the Pakistani team gave a victory round. But if theyre so "sporting", you might as well have a crowd simulating machine. Stand and clap 20 times for 5 wicket haul, 30 for a 10 wicket haul. Sit and clap 10 times for 50, stand and clap 20 times for a 100. What would be the difference between different countries then?

Appreciating good cricket is always a good thing - there is no downside to it. Accepted - Not all of us can keep levelheaded always - we do waver in our mood.

Its not about wavering in moods or whatever. For me, sport without passion is pretty empty. You might aswell watch a dance show where you appreciate everything. I dont know if you can relate to this, but I HATE it when Matthew Hayden scores a run. Of course its obvious that he's a terrific batsman who averages 50 when opening the batting. My passion for cricket would be so much poorer without that intense dislike. Similar story with the crowd.

Rajnikantaz has made some serious movies too. But they still have ishtyle in them! :winky:

See. You lost any bit of credibility that you had left (;

[fineleg]

^ Personally, I too hate when Haydos, Symo or Punter make a run. My wish is they get ducks right through. But thats my wish on a personal note. And, yes I know Haydos and esp. Punter are terrific batsmen. When you are in public in a stadium, crowd needs to maintain certain class and standard. The reason chennai crowd is appreciated is because they know the game and are open to acknowledge a good performance. I agree all crowds need not do the same. As long as no excess booring and hooliganism then its ok - I guess you agreed on that too. (PS: BTW - whats with the disagreement on rajnikantaaz? No ishtyle or no serious movie? :D)

[punjabi_khota]

I don't care what some d%$khead Menon thinks. We should have a hostile environment that makes it difficult for opposing teams to succeed. Home advantage should be an advantage.