Cricinfo - Blogs - Blues Brothers - Cricket's cyber-nationalists

When an Indian player is reported – unfairly in my opinion – for racism, it makes me boil. When India won the Perth Test recently or the limited overs tri-series finals in Austalia, I exulted, felt vindicated like many other Indians did, and was happy to tell everybody within hearing distance, “It serves those Aussies right.”

Having said this, I find it impossible to get similarly emotionally charged while watching matches as deathly boring as the one that’s just ended in Chennai. Aside from Sehwag’s innings – a tribute to fast scoring and stamina in energy-sapping heat – will I even remember this match? Will anyone?

Later in 2008, India plays a tri-series in Bangladesh in June – almost certain to be interrupted by the monsoon – and hosts England for seven ODIs. Unless it’s a particularly exciting game, do I see myself biting nails and praying fervently for India – My Country, My Team! – to win in the fourth match of that series? Can I be expected to treat it with the same importance and emotional investment as the Perth Test, the ICC World Twenty20 or the CB tri-series final in Australia?

Sport can become a channel for nationalism and feeling for one’s country at landmark moments. I still remember Rahul Dravid hitting the winning run and raising his arms at Adelaide in 2004. I was there in Athens when Rajyavardhan Rathore won that silver medal and I was weeping copiously. Yet, can this happen on a round-the-year basis, from Singapore to Sri Lanka, Nagpur to Napier, or wherever the endless and meaningless Indian ODI itinerary takes my television and me?

I know my answer. If you have another one, good for you.

Technology does strange things to us. It has created a generation of cricket cyber-nationalists who are, for the most part, infuriating. India is the best and the damn the rest, goes the mantra; cricket, in these circumstances, becomes less a sport or a human endeavour to savour, more a vehicle for pet dislikes, obsessions and prejudices.

This is a group whose cricket has a limited geography – being focused solely on India, Indian matches, Indian players – but is also essentially ahistorical. The natural corollary to cricket as hyper-nationalism is cricket as anti-contextual. Usually this translates to: the best is now; or rather, the best is the current player I like. He is unprecedented, there was never another like him.

When I was growing up, there were fellows in school who were devoted to statistics, forever quoting one or the other to make their point. I must say I went through my obsession with statistical trivia as well, I still enjoy it at times, but it doesn’t consume my entire cricket. I’ve outgrown that period, as so many cricket buffs do.

Desktop cricket fanaticism, however, is a re-rendition of this belief that record-books and statistics don’t just embellish cricket, they ARE cricket. Statsguru is a very useful tool provided by Cricinfo and while it can be invaluable for research, it can also lead to some fairly moronic analyses.

The other day, somebody wrote in insisting that Srikkanth was only as effective or fast-scoring in ODIs as Rahul Dravid because they both had a strike rate of (if I recall) “71 per 100 balls”; and that by the strike-rate parameter, Sehwag was a greater batsman than Srikkanth. Since the person has obviously already made up his mind, how do you even begin a discussion on batting-bowling equations, pitch conditions, opposition bowling strengths, the evolution of one-day cricket from the 1980s to now?

Sehwag may well be a better batsman than Srikkanth – though that is a subjective call and surely all 10,000 or 50,000 people watching a cricket match have the right to see events their way and, in a sense, to watch different versions of the same game – but is a strike-rate enumerator going to decide that?

Mr. Malik, I'm afraid you, me & Mr. Kesavan are on the same boat of thought! Though I do get really engrossed in matches and curse the captain or the bowler for doing something stupid and praise them like a God when they do something great, I just have never felt as patriotically attached to the Sri Lankan team as most Indians seem to!

Frankly, if a Sri Lankan player does something wrong, I criticize him, and I don't just dig for some absurd excuses to defend him!

I think the main reason for this sort of emotional attachement to the Indian team is the MEDIA! e.g. When Harbhajan was charged with racism, was it really necessary to get his mother's opinion on the matter? Its not like she was going to say "Oh Yes, my son was very racist at school, and I'm not surprised"!

The media fuels the passion of the common Indian. This trend has not come to SL, mainly because ppl r obsessed with the war, but after it ends, mark my word, SL will become just like India!

I love the passion you Indian guys have for cricket but too often it seems to be used as convenient way for people to push nationalistic agenda's.

During the symonds incident ridiculous words like 'national honour' were used(as Pakistan used during the hair incident) the talk from many in india was more like what you would expect if a war had broken out instead of a single incident on a cricket pitch.

I feel this is stemming from a lack of confidence on the world stage but your country is an emerging powerhouse so i feel people in India may calm down over the next 20 years and stop using cricket as a way to push other non sporting agenda's.

Remember it's just a game not a religion, i feel more people in india need to start actually plying and most importantly UMPIRING the sport so they get a greater understanding of fair play and healthy respectful competition.

Ashok - is this a cricket blog or a Daily Bulletin message board? I think most people would welcome the idea of a new blog emerging on crickinfo to fill-in the void created by Mukul. But, the way you are writing new threads on a daily basis reminds me of so many things.

First, a movie of Robin Williams called "Jack" who is only 10-years-old and he suffers from a genetic disorder that causes him to physically age four times faster than a normal person, hope you are not suffering from that syndrome and you are not in a hurry to finish off that quota in a month.

There is an expression in the sub-continent, "nai fakir ko bheek ki jaldi," meaning - he is in a great hurry to get the alms or charity as if he has to catch a train immediately after that. Malik Sahab you may be a Pir Fakir but, hopefully you are not a few one. So, take a short breath and the audience will catch up with you.

Starting a new thread everyday may not be a good idea unless its your new toy or a musical instrument for someone who likes to play any and every tune, every single day. When you first learn to do something like that i.e., for example. how to play an instrument? You go in leaps and bounds but, soon you spend time doing the fine tuning this may be difficult and tedious, and depends on the strength of the foundations.

So, it is time for you take advantage of the solid foundation of cricinfo but, for Pete Sake stop building your castle on sandbags. I hope you don't mind my suggestion and add some interesting contents in your threads otherwise it would look like Robs Lob or someone else's blab.

PS. But, please don't slumber on like PakSpin.

"most recently when a respondent to one of my posts – which semi-facetiously suggested an Indian batting collapse could inject some energy into a destined-for-a-draw Chennai Test "...

I hate to brag, but that was me and I was correct. But I was shocked to see my post published and getting deleted..why?

did you receive any death threats??

I should congratulate on your well thought out article.
I always believed that it is high time india moved away from cricket. and you simply can't discuss sanely with a stat obsessed rabid fan and state the ground realities to a fanatic who equates patriotism to indian cricket

psst: give me a heads up when you are going to delete my post!!!!

[Ashok responds ... Being new to blogging, I made a silly error and deleted some 20 comments. It was inadvertent, not deliberate. Responses, death threats, etc., are welcome]

He he I was hoping that SA would capitalize on our batting collapse and force us to bat agHe obviously remembered the shellacking at Sydney oain by piling up quick runs but Graeme Smith feared Sehwag's willow too much to do that, I guess. I have well and truly given up on the jingoists now (we are like that only) - how can you discuss who to drop or not after a single loss, because even Australia don't win all their matches.

Channels like Aaj Tak who employ anchors who don't seem to know the first thing about the vagaries of Test cricket don't help either. One other news anchor I hold in high regard wrote on this subject in a weekly magazine and said some correspondents incited irate fans to burn effigies after the ODI World Cup debacle - like what are you waiting for, do it. If that is true, then God help Indian cricket.

The recent controversy over Dhoni's remarks was also entirely media-made and he had been quoted blatantly out of context, funny nobody reported on that.

I want to add something here about the Srikkanth-Sehwag debate. I think cricket has moved on by leaps and bounds from the 80s and the best thing would be to not compare across eras. I grew up watching cricket in the 90s and I have to say that other than the marauding Windies, none of the pace bowlers of the 80s seemed strikingly fast by today's standards.

On the other hand, I haven't ever again seen such a fiery display of pace bowling as Shoaib yorking Dravid and Sachin off successive deliveries, so it has little to do with camerawork. Kris was a Sehwag-like batsman in his time and to suggest he is like Dravid would be a folly, agreed.

But I would argue that Sehwag is still, at least in Tests, a more effective batsman because he has several big centuries against world-class opposition to his name and that is the surest test of batsmanship. His methods may offend purists, but there is no madness about it anymore, it's the real deal.

I agree with Adith that you are trying to respond with a new blog to some of the responses to your previous blogs. Your frequency of blogging is amazing but I feel you are overdoing it a bit. It could become like the Chennai test match which as it went on became so boring that even the most die hard spectator did not turn up to watch the game.

The current blog is on the spot. Stupid effigy burning idiots are being given undue importance by the equally irresponsible and news hungry media which probably encourages these dumb guys to do all such things to sully the image of the country by venting their incompetent furies in such stupid deeds. Probably we should ban channels like Times Now, Headlines Today, India 24 and some stupid channels which just seem to thrive on such trivia.

The other day Viru's 300 celebration with a cake cutting and general fun and here was one channel practically puttting Dhoni and Viru as enemies..pure unadulterated bullshit that was...

You write, "The natural corollary to cricket as hyper-nationalism is cricket as anti-contextual." Sorry, but I can't see what the necessary connection is between hyper-nationalism and being anti-contextual.

Outside of this, I also have to take issue with the way you have painted my response to one of your earlier posts where you compared Sehwag to Srikkanth. While I did mention Srikkanth's strike-rate, you left out, quite ingeniously, the fact that I also mentioned their vastly different Test records. I am no 'stats-buff', but surely you can't deny that they aid (at least Test records) in making a moderate estimate of a batsman's capability.

You also conveniently forgot to mention that I also noted that Sehwag is a far better batsman simply because it is discernible to anyone who watched both of them bat. For instance, it's obvious that unlike Srikkanth, Sehwag hardly needs to play shots in the air to score quick.

Yes, we belong to a creed of what you suggest hyper nationalist, rabid, so-called non-intellectual Indian cricket follower. And we make no qualms about it. Why shouldn't we celebrate our country's success and beam with pride, and eschew a facade of pseudo-neutrality on the basis of supposed good viewing.

Good viewing is When INDIA does well and fights with all its inherent spirit and grit, like In Australia, or unchallenged in benign pitches. Its hardly a matter for tut-tutting if the so called docile pitches where should quicker bowlers bend their backs get appreciable purchase, as Steyn learnt to his chagrin very late, and if batsmen who can apply themselves, as the rapacious Sehwag dis get the opposition coach searching for words!

This is how the whole world reports sport,be it Aussies or the British press or a vacuous pak spin, whose members vent spleen on Hindus, Indians and everyone. Time we learnt to dish it out and wear our fervour with Pride.
INDIA = JOSH + JUNOON + JESBAA

I don't see why as Indian supporters and public who support our teams, we should not get a chance to support our team winning. Your article on a collapse to lend more flavour to the match was pathetic. And I'm glad India proved you wrong.

C'mon Ashok, you're here to do the Indian team and its supporters a service. You can keep your scholastic attitudes at home, please dont bring them here. We want to cheer our team winning.

Couldn't you have posted a single article as to How Sehwag overcame a turmoil of being cast aside and summoned his grit and strength to make 300? Isn;t that a story of determination and unflagging spirit in the face of adversity? One man's determination to get his 'seat' back?

Surely you're a better journalist than that. Now an article like that would've got more people involved. We'll read waht WE want you to write. Its called paying for /buying a service. Time to learn

Ashok - Couple of comments you made on statistics make sense. But the overall tone of your blog looses the plot right of the bat. What I mean is, the new breed of Indian cyber nationalists are a natural result of the growing technological advanceements and tools available to critisize on and off field happenings.

Many Aussie bloggers (famous and in-famous ones) lamented on how Indian fans have given them nightmares, after the recent IND-AUS series. Well, it may sound like we are nuts about our players and our team, but the truth is that so are fans from accorss the sub-contient and beyond. Barmy-Army is the prime example of such jinogism.

Scene this: Aussie fans gave a standing ovation to Sachin, but also constantly booed Harbhajan whenever he stepped onto the field. So, it's not just you and me, there are millions of fans who do weired stuff when it comes to sports. So, you may want to put some focus on your blogs and be bit more less-senstive. You know what I mean.

It is good to be nationalistic, good to be patriotic. Good to feel one of our country men do well, proud to feel! One fan above states he isn't attached to the SL team. How is it wrong to attach to a team? Afterall, as fans we have the right to support our players when they do well and critique them when they do badly. It is, however, not suggested to be extreme in this nationalism or patriotism.

I have a question for Mr. Malik though. How does we feeling proud helping the sportsmen? It sure helped Dravid, but did it help Rathore in anyway? I think fans should realize what is of more worth - the test win at Adelaide or the medal for our country at the Olympics?

On a world stage, competing with all countries a someone called Rathore wins a medal and he is forgotten after 2 days. We continue to support our cricket players who win once in a blue moon playing among 10 countries. A win is a win, it is good to feel proud. Encourage all sports!

I totally agree. whoever thinks they are patriotic - must ask themselves one question, was there a day they woke up in the morning and said to themselves 'Let me do something for the nation today'? Patriotism doesn't begin and end with a cricket match. Neither is it fulfilled by buying a flag on aug 15th. what happens to it on the rest of the days? how many minutes have they spent on how to improve the surroundings?

In my own capability I tried to and I still try to do as much as possible - right from educating people (including those travellinig in lavish toyotas and hondas) not to spit on the road, to obey traffic rules, i've bought physical aids for disabled children at govt. schools..from my own pocket.

but my fav team? i cheer for South africa! I cheered for england when won ashes 2005. I wanted srilanka to win in WI last week!There are times when i wanted India to lose badly...so that some of the arrogant fellas get a lesson. I am a cricket lover not an insane indian cricket fan!

Ashok Malik:

Not that you would be affected by some of the nonsense that people write in, but just wanted to say that this was a good article, and it does address a valid issue; namely the issue of the stupid exuberance of ultra-nationalist Indian cricket fans.

Furthermore, if one was to be such an ultra-nationalist, one would eschew and utterly reject the sport of cricket as an imperialist sport. Clearly these kooks aren't thinking rationally.

Apropos the relatively large number of articles you have posted in a short space of time, I won't complain, because from a marketing perspective, one can argue that you need to quickly establish an editorial presence on this site to attract visitors onto your blogging section, and get them posting, by offering them a significant number of articles to reply to.

Having established your presence on this website, you could then dial back the frequency at which you upload new articles. The articles thus far have been good, so keep it up.

tinker - save the condescending attitude for yourself
simon - you sound very much like you are from the western world - how indian fans behave is not of your concern, and the behaviour has been fine, effigy burning, etc, are all just excessive passion.

there was no "jingoism" involved with what happened down under: the aussies cheated, falsely accused harbhajan of being racist, aussie media tried to paint a picture of all indians as being racist, etc etc. Thing is, we didnt roll over and play along.

I wonder what you think of England fans who shout "Rule Brittania" as they did in new zealand, or when they shouted about them never being slaves in west indies - wouldnt that be deemed "excessive patriotism"???
the author takes things too seriously, everyone has their own opinion about "patriotism". Leave it at that.

Finally an Indian journo blogging about something that close observers of the Indian game have known for some time: that a vast majority of Indian fans aren't 'cricket' fans at all, they are India fans first and foremost and care very little for the game itself.

I can vividly remember Michael Holding commentating on a game between India and West Indies some years back (the venue and match elude me). A West Indian batsmen had stroked sumptuous cover drive to the fence, a shot that prompted not even the slightest murmur of appreciation from a large Indian crowd. Faced with this wall of silence Mikey came out with the immortal "Don't worry everybody, nobody died, the West Indies just hit a boundary".

For me this was symptomatic of the way large numbers of Indian supporters view the game, basically if India aren't doing well then they're not particularly interested.

Unfortunately this indifference to the rest of the world is now mirrored by all aspects of the Indian system.

Its a pity that people who write columns like these dont think beyond their own shell... I see two issues here. One - Everyone watches sport for his/her entertainment... but not everyone needs to enjoy the game the same way someone else does... there is nothing insane in liking your team... as a matter of fact i watch games like bermuda V sri lanka as well.... but someone else might not enjoy it... but that does not make him any inferior/superior to me as a cricket lover.... I find it extremely amusing when people take the mantle of deciding who a "Fan" is and who is not....

The second issue - a person might like a particular batsman or a bowler and he might feel he is good... by saying he is not right u r commiting the same mistake(this is not a mistake according to me) as the other person...