Frankly I did not have a favourite team at all when IPL began. This was because I believed that all teams were my own as I consider myself a complete Hindustani with no state affinities. Friends have often disregarded this theory of mine stating that this is more out of the fact that I have not been at any one place for long and so I cannot call anyplace mine.
When IPL began in 2008 though, I saw a lot of my colleagues, friends, etc choose favourite teams and saw them adoring their players. When they supported their teams that meant they abhorred the opposition. This was self-defeating for me because I had grown up having learnt to not even dream of booing Indian cricketers. When I saw Yuvraj Singh booed in Mumbai, I thought this tournament is going to do more damage than good to the national integrity.
Not only this, audiences started to boo Indian players against their other country counterparts for the sheer reason that the Indian player was playing for another franchisee. That baffled me so much. I for a few days stopped watching the league. What do to, my sheer interest and passion for the game (any team, any format, any place, even kids playing in the park) made sure I could not avoid it for long and I got back to it, again not supporting any team, just good cricket.
Three seasons went past and suddenly came the wow moment when once again the teams sat down for auction of players. Again the confusion and again the problem of which team to support, because now most players changed hands. Some top notch ones as well. I wanted to know which teams would some of my friends support, as most players they loved and who were the reason they supported a certain team, were bought by others.
This is when I got the answer. Team''s affinities changed as players went from one to other. This theory was especially true for Royal Challengers Bangalore who lost Rahul Dravid. Most of their fans of earlier seasons shifted loyalties to Rajasthan Royals, the new owner of "The Wall".
Just goes on to show the fact that we are a player fanatic nation and not one which follows a sport like fanatic, nor one which follows a team. This is the reason why we react so badly to wins and losses and especially vent our anger on our favourite players when they fail and take them to our heads when they perform well and we win.
That is the reason why each of us is an expert of the game though we might not know the difference between long-leg and square-leg on the cricket ground. But because we know that Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar plays for Mumbai Indians and hence we have to support him, we believe we have the right to speak anything.
IPL has solved one of my very basic questions about what cricket means to India. Frankly with all this hoopla it means nothing because had it meant anything, the passions would have arose for the sport and not the individual. The way we waited for a 100th ton recently (which came in a losing cause which was forgotten to celebrate the ton) just goes on to show our affliction towards the players and no sport could survive in any country for this madness.
By Rohit Sakunia
