Cricket and the Great Indian Fan Melodrama

India and cricket go hand in hand; cricket stars are Gods, and the fans are devotees, worshipping them as if cricketers are the next best thing to happen after the world was created.

Of course, every sport ought to have it's share of fan following, but trust me, when it comes to Indian cricket, "fan-ship" goes overboard, with all the emotions a classic story teller could concoct in his entire lifetime.

Not even England, the mother country, could match what Indian fans do to show their supreme support for the game; if a tournament be organised specifically for judging the ultimate fan nation, Indian fans would top the list by a huge margin, period!

The things that we Indian fans do in our overflowing and brimming passion, from the regular tacking of posters above the bed post to the highly weird (writing a letter in blood to Sachin Tendulkar), demonstrates everything an Indian fan can do.

To add to this, we perform special offerings to Gods [the actual GODS] before India plays in the World Cups, and when by chance it fails in a particular match, the fans are ready with fire torches to set alight a cricketer's house.

I am definitely not making this up. During the 2003 World Cup, when India lost its league match against Australia, some fans vandalised and torched the back portion of Mohammed Kaif's house. Police protection had to be zeroed in so that further occurrences of a similar kind could be avoided.

And then again in 2007, when India lost in the initial stages of the World Cup, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni (or rather, his home) to incur the wrath of these weirdos.

But the ultimate fan following debacle that tops all these "passionate" encounters is the 1996 World Cup semi-final match between India and Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

India, chasing the Sri Lankan target, had lost the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar and the fans who were so upset by the loss of his wicket and the now-unavoidable loss situation, started hurling bottles and rotten vegetables on to the ground.

It was a real hullabaloo, not to mention the shame that the organisers had to face; when the fans of the host nation can't respect the spirit with which the sport is supposed to be played, what else remains to be said?

The match referee Clive Lloyd, for the first time in the history of the sport, awarded the match to Sri Lanka because of crowd disturbance and the fans, in spite of all their supposed "good natured" antics ended up being directly responsible for their country's loss, dubious distinction indeed!

These days though, thankfully the "fan volcano" is not rumbling considering india's good run of form for quite some time now; but if by chance India ends up slipping, there is no questioning the fact that the same fans who swear by their idols' names will not hesitate to swear against it in addition to resorting to whatever crude artillery [judgemental, for them] action they can come up with.