Passions fan out, cricket brings out extremes

Rohit Mahajan

AT first look, the sight of the Indian flags on the floor outside the toilets at the cricket ground in Birmingham was unsettling, a little nauseating. Soon after India had been beaten by New Zealand in the semifinals of the World Cup, the colours of India, saffron, white and green, lay on the floor outside the toilets at the Edgbaston ground. It seemed like the aftermath of a lost battle — the colours of the beaten nation were dumped on the floor. They were now just a heap of cloth in a disheveled and dirty state.

Closer inspection revealed, however, that they were not Indian flags, though they had the colours of the Indian flag. They were the banners of the Bharat Army, which describes itself as the “No. 1 Indian Cricket Supporters Group”. Bharat Army books match tickets and arranges for travel and hotel bookings; its members sing songs in praise of India and the Indian team; they praise their own friendship  with a song from the movie Sholey, “Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Chhorengey”. Yet, they had dumped their flags — in the colours of the Indian flag — right after their team was beaten. The flags were now just excess baggage, useless now that the Indian team was out. Bharat Army's people claim that they have unconditional support for the team, independent of victory or defeat. But the dosti with the Indian team was over. The flags were garbage. That's a story of the ‘passion’ of Indian fans.

Cricket-mad

The Sharmas of Coventry, they're crazy about cricket. In 2014, when the Indian team toured England, the older son, Dhruv, now studying medicine, was desperate to meet Virat Kohli — to have a chat with him, one-to-one. Kishor and Seema Sharma, and their sons Karan and Dhruv stayed in hotels where the team was staying. They did the whole tour, from city to city, going from Test to Test, ODI to ODI. Karan wanted to sit down with Kohli for a chat. “But he never had the time,” says Seema. “He'd say to us — ‘So you'd be at the next match? Perhaps there’.” Eventually, Seema had had enough — “I told him that we’re your fans, your performances are worth something only because of people like us,” says Seema. “He relented then and got a photograph with us.”

The Sharmas of Coventry spent a fortune in 2014 watching the cricket and trying to get a moment of intimacy with Kohli and Dhoni and the other superstars of the Indian team. That's a lot of money. Seema wonders if it was worth it; but, having considered it, the Sharmas declare that no monetary cost is too high for happiness.

The Sharmas had booked rooms in the hotel the Indian team would have stayed at if they had reached the final. They didn't have the tickets for the final, but they had a roof over their heads for July 13 and 14 at a premium hotel.

They thought it would be OK if they couldn't get the tickets: the cricket-mad Sharmas thought that when the Indian team got back to the hotel with the World Cup trophy at night on July 14, the family would cheer the team, celebrate with it.

But the team never reached the final — it lost in the semifinals. However, the Sharmas — sons born in England, parents migrants from Punjab — will continue to remain mad for the Indian cricket team. This, too, is a story of the passion of Indian cricket fans.

A religion?

For the Sharmas, and countless others like them, cricket is actually like a religion: The Sharmas have actually got a shrine-like place in their home where signed photographs, caps and other memorabilia are placed and revered. Among their prized possessions is a cap signed by MS Dhoni and photographs of the Indian team they won at an auction. They all adore Dhoni, for he's been incredibly nice at each meeting.

The founder of the Bharat Army is British, and a large number of its members are not Indian residents. They're possibly caught in a no-man's land — Indians abroad, unable to identify themselves with the local popular culture, and thus attracted more and more to the motherland they or their forefathers left long ago. They've left ‘their own’ shores; perhaps it's not really heart-wrenching for them to dump their flags, in the Indian flag's colours, on the floor outside the toilets at a cricket ground.

These are just two of the love stories around the Indian team. Just how deep is your love?