India: a different sporting planet

If you have a thick skin, and the ability to ignore countless uneducated, one eyed and quite frankly aggressive and anti-English comments, check out the comments under cricinfo.com articles. They’re flooded with Indian fans that appear to either know nothing about cricket or have a habit of consuming narcotic substances before they sit down at a keyboard.

Initially, it’s hard not to get worked up by what fanatics in Mumbai and Delhi write, but after a while your enduring mood will be one of sadness. The Aussies and us Pommies have a fierce rivalry, but one that’s essentially light hearted and tongue in cheek. We extract the Michael out of each other mercilessly at times, but it’s generally well natured. The banter with Indian fans, however, frequently becomes bitter and genuinely hostile. How did it come to this?

As someone who has blood relatives living in India (I have Indian second cousins living in Jaipur), I have always supported India as my ‘second team’. Whenever England go out of major tournaments (usually in the quarter finals of course), I start rooting for Dhoni’s boys. Well, what’s the alternative, supporting South Africa or Australia?! You’ve got to be kidding.

Unfortunately however, my attitude is slowly beginning to change. I’m getting tired of Indian fans’ fanaticism. I can understand Indian cricket fans, and the BCCI in particular, flexing their muscles. As a former English colony, they must love the fact that they’re an emerging super power and that India is now cricket’s financial hub. There’s nothing like rubbing your former masters’ noses in the mud.

However, I fear that an extremely vocal minority doesn’t seem to realise that Alastair Cook and Ian Bell have absolutely nothing to do with the British Raj. Neither do English cricket fans. Half our team is South African for heaven sake. No country is more ashamed of its imperial heritage than Great Britain (well, maybe the Americans, but they’re generally in denial about the whole thing).

Of course, there are other reasons why animosity has developed between English and Indian cricket fans – some of which have emerged recently. The DRS is one major cause of tension. Like other nationalities, English people simply cannot understand India’s objection to technology. If they didn’t like it because they believe human error is part of the game, or they think TV referrals ruin the flow of matches, I think we could all accept that. However, India’s objections seem totally illogical and intransigent to us. It’s as if they’re saying ‘we haven’t had the rub of the green with a few decisions, so we’re totally opposed to the whole idea’.

In England, the majority of pundits favour the DRS because it helps the umpires to get more decisions right. That’s the reason why Aleem Dar, the best umpire in the world, is in favour of using technology. Are we to assume, therefore, that Indians don’t want to reach the right decision more often? Hotspot certainly has its weaknesses, as does Hawkeye, but the prevailing attitude of Indian fans is: ‘if it’s not 100% perfect we aren’t interested’. This seems incredibly unrealistic. My internet connection doesn’t always work, indeed my laptop crashes once a week, but that doesn’t mean I want to chuck it in the dustbin. It’s still a bloody useful tool.

For all its failings, statistics have proved that DRS is more accurate than the human eye. All of this, however, is ignored by the BCCI, who have put their foot down over the issue and refuse to budge. The fact that the ICC refuses to tell India where to go, and seem to bow to their every whim, increases the bad feeling that we, as English fans, feel towards Indian cricket. Outside Asia, the BCCI is perceived as a great road block – a self interested body that dominates international cricket with no regard for the greater good. This assessment might seem harsh, but that’s the way many Englishmen, Australians, Kiwis and South Africans feel.

The Indian obsession with limited overs cricket doesn’t help either. Outside of Asia, and some parts of the West Indies, test cricket is regarded as the most sacred form of the game. If the BCCI agrees with this sentiment, it certainly doesn’t act like it. They took India’s tour of England last summer, in which the number one test ranking was at stake, very lightly indeed. India arrived on English shores both unprepared, and dare I say it, a tad unmotivated. The return series in India, the irrelevance we’re watching now, involves five ODIs and not a solitary test match. As Englishmen, we simply can’t understand this attitude.

The IPL also demonstrates the cultural divide between Indian and English cricket fans. T20 is huge on the subcontinent, but most Englishmen find the idea of cricket franchises, consisting of several foreign players who have been bought in an auction, highly vulgar. The sums of money involved are also obscene – and they’re threatening test cricket. The likes of Lasith Malinga and Chris Gayle have no problem missing international fixtures in order to make big bucks playing in the IPL. But do the BCCI, and cricket fans in India in general, give two hoots?

How long before the best young players turn their back on test cricket altogether to pursue careers as freelance T20 cricketers? When that happens, test cricket will soon disappear. More needs to be done to tame the IPL leviathan before it gets out of hand. As Englishmen, we see this menace as an Indian phenomenon. It doesn’t exactly inspire cordial relations.

It’s possible, of course, that Indian fans get aggressive in online forums because they’re defensive about these issues. The most belligerent people (and nations) are often those that feel besieged on all sides. However, I’m not so sure this is the case. The main problem, as I see it, is the sheer fanaticism of many India fans. They are so emotional about the sport that they often lose all perspective. The elation they feel after victories is immense; the reprisals after defeats are bitter and aggressive.

All this emotion frequently boils over – and it often comes out in bitter rhetoric and angry finger pointing (much of which is directed at England). Did you know that some India TV channels reacted to India’s defeat in England by accusing the likes of Jimmy Anderson of being unsporting devils that constantly violated the spirit of cricket? It was all because Jimmy likes to have a word in the batsman’s ear between deliveries; the kind of thing that happens on cricket grounds across the world every single day.

Of course, all this emotion has nothing to do with race or Indian people per se – it’s just human nature. We see it all the time in British football; why else is there trouble inside and outside grounds around the country? Meanwhile, some of the chanting that goes on at Premier League matches is genuinely aggressive, distasteful and full of hatred. The emotions simply run too high.

The problem, however, is that this kind of passion is rarely seen in English cricket. Supporters of the England cricket team are generally cynical, self-deprecating, and have a humorous take on the sport. That’s why the Barmy Army is so special. It’s rare that England fans actually get together and support the team so passionately – and even then it’s all somewhat tongue in cheek. When England lose a test down under, the Barmy Army usually shrugs its shoulders, laughs, and has a few beers. In certain parts of Asia, some consider suicide whilst others burn effigies of the underperforming players that have somehow betrayed the nation.

The response to India’s ODI series win over England is a typical case in point. After India’s test defeats in August, message boards across Asia were full of despondent fans ready to be placed on suicide watch. Now they’re winning again, they’re waxing lyrical about their players, often over-estimating their abilities, whilst rubbishing their rivals. The following quote taken from cricinfo is a typical example (I picked this one, but could easily have chosen another hundred):

“It’s not just the English one day game that is lagging behind. If England were to play 5 test matches in India, they would be wiped out 5-0 – even against this India C side. Yes – this is an India C side – 6 -8 to the players who were a part of the world cup campaign are not playing due to injuries. And this India C side is running circles around the English team – imagine what they would do in the heat over a period of 5 days. I doubt if any of the Test matches would go the distance. Basically the point is that though India lost the series a couple of months ago, that does not make England a No.1 test side. India has so much talent that they can easily field 2 international teams in all formats and have a better than 500 average of wins and losses”.

What planet are people like this on? There is no sense of perspective. Everybody knows that England have a very good test team, but we’ve been rubbish at ODIs since about 1992. It’s just indicative of the highs and lows experienced by Indian supporters. When they’re up, they’re up. When they’re down, they get lower than Chris Tavare’s strike rate.

The reaction to England’s triumph over India in the recent test series, and England’s rise to number one in the world rankings, was generally measured on these shores. After years of being trounced by Australia, we felt somewhat uncomfortable about being number one. Rather than proclaiming England as world beaters, many of us said we were number one because the opposition had got weaker; where are all the great fast bowlers, we asked? Furthermore, I read as many articles praising Raul Dravid’s mental strength, and MS Dhoni’s charisma and composure, as I did about Jonathan Trott’s persistence or Stuart Broad’s return to form. I wonder whether Indian fans would have reacted in the same way?

The obvious point I suppose is this: cricket is just a game. Let’s not get all uppity about something that’s supposed to be enjoyable. International cricket, after all, is just twenty two blokes we’ve never met trying to hit a ball on a field. Is it really worth getting upset about? In the immortal words of Harry Enfield: ‘alright, alright, calm down, calm down’. Or perhaps even those of Michael Winner: ‘calm down dear, it’s only a referral’.

James Morgan