What makes a fan into a fanatic?
The relationship between a sport and a fervent fan is anything but gamelike. It is deadly serious.
In the context of sports, look at Cricket world cup semi-finals - 1996 at Eden garden. After the loss of Sachin Tendulkar’s prized wicket, sections of the crowd began to throw fruit and plastic bottles onto the field. The players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to quieten the crowd. However, when the players returned for play, the eccentric crowd threw bottles onto the field, setting the stands on fire.
So we want our affliated sports teams to win to prove our own superiority, but to who are we trying to prove it ? Ourselves, certainly, but to everyone else too.
Take, for example, the case of Andres Escobar, who, as a member of the Colombian national team, accidentally tipped a ball into his own team’s net during a World cup soccer match in 1994. The “auto goal” led to a U.S. team victory and the elimination of the favored Colombians from the competition. Back home two weeks later, Escobar was executed in a restaurant by two gunmen, who shot him twelve times for his mistake.
People fall in love with sports because it simply fulfils a basic human need — it provides a sense of belonging and acceptance.
Silly point: On linking cricket to patriotism
People who allegedly celebrated the victory of Pakistan against India in a T20 cricket World Cup match on October 24 are facing the brunt of the state.
In Rajasthan, a private school terminated a young school teacher, and the police have charged her under IPC Section 153B for ‘imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the police have registered two cases against unknown persons under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and other sections.
In Uttar Pradesh, the police charged three students from J&K under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between groups), 505 (creating or publishing content to promote hostility), and, later under Section 124A, sedition.
The wisdom, propriety, or acceptability of celebrating Pakistan’s victory is beside the point. From moral, tactical, and practical perspectives, this sweeping policing is unwise.
An unremitting loyalty test of citizens can be a self-defeating pursuit for a country like India with global ambitions. People of Indian origin live around the world, with split loyalties. There are U.S. citizens who chant victory for India at gatherings in their home countries addressed by the Indian prime minister. There are British and Australian citizens who boo their own country in favor of India during sporting events.
Infusion of toxic hyper-nationalism in sports is bad in such a world; more so for India.
We tend to surround ourselves with success; we connect to superficial things (for example, a place of residence, celebrated sports teams, movie stars), our public prestige should rise.
All we do is purposefully manipulate the visibility of our connections with winners and losers to make ourselves look good to anyone who views the links. By showcasing the positive associations and burying the negative ones, we strive hard to get observers to think more highly of us.
A good example is the posts you see on social media right after a nail-biting sports event. A train of celebratory posts after a win and an eerie silence after a loss.
People usually tend to associate themselves with positive events and separate themselves from negative events — even when they have not caused the event.
At a superficial level, it refers to reinforcing my beliefs by only accepting moments that confirm my view and rejecting those that point to the contrary.
Fans question every referee call against their team, policymakers restraining fans from celebrating a rival team’s victory, blame the rival faction of cheating, or justifying their favorite team’s horrid performance on some absurd superstition such as “But I did not sit on my spot on my couch; therefore, my team lost.”
Ingroup-outgroup bias: This stems from the belief that one’s group is superior to the others. This bias creates strong “fandoms” where supporters of one team tend to despise the supporters of the other.
It may be as simple as favoring your own sports team, or it can be something on a much larger scale, such as selecting people who share your race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality.
Before, we worship our idols into demigods & boo our rivals.
Karma is a boomerang & it will hit you hard !
