Ugly Fans and Honourable Sportspersons

Hate holds dominion in today’s India. In a brilliant essay, Priya Ramani has diagnosed us – the people of India, that is Bharat – as having the most diseased hearts in the world, pumped as we are with hate and prejudice. This pervasive, hate-fuelled myocardial infarction is triggered on hearing church bells or the azaan (Islamic prayer call) or seeing someone from the Dalit community on a horse or sporting a moustache, or listening to feminists talk about criminalising marital rape; the very mention of the ‘M’ word causes heartburn. Priya has nailed it! In the last few years, this life-threatening affliction has poisoned every segment of society, even sports fans.

Etymologically the word “fan” has a less than honourable lineage. It springs from the ugly term “fanaticism” that connotes an obsessive, noxious zeal. Delving deeper I found its genesis in the Latin word fanaticus meaning “insanely inspired”. Today’s Indian fan is the meanest, most dysfunctional follower of the game, a vicious loser who turns against his own team when it loses. Even worse, he has brought bigotry into the mix, evaluating sportspersons by the colour of their religion, and God help those who don’t belong! 

Allow me a disclaimer at this point: as a sports buff, I belong to an era, nearly extinct, of sports fans who loved the game for its own sake. Those fans share nothing in common with today’s fanatics who masquerade as sports devotees but are small-minded racists.

That was a gentler, more civilised time when cricketers with Muslim names like Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Salim Durani were the nation’s heroes and the stuff of young girls’ dreams. At every cricket stadium around the country, whenever Durani came out to bat, the crowd would erupt, chanting non-stop: “We want sixer! We want sixer!” And the gentle, charismatic Pathan rarely let them down. 

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The most stirring illustration of the spirit of sport was demonstrated at the Chepauk stadium in Chennai during the first Test match between India and Pakistan in 1999. In a gripping encounter, marked by a heroic century in the fourth innings by Sachin Tendulkar, Pakistan prevailed by a mere 12 runs. At a time when all of India was gutted by this loss to our arch-rivals, the Chennai cricket fans embraced our common shared humanity by giving the Pakistan team a standing ovation as they took a victory lap, giving the world an object lesson in sportsmanship.

But that’s all gone! India is no longer what it was. This is not an India that speaks for all Indians but a divided Bharat of bigoted racists, primitive in their thinking. Our religious identity defines and influences our thoughts and actions, and sadly, it is a religiosity that is not tolerant and caring but the wellspring of hate and chauvinism.

While the World Cup triumphs of 1983 and 2011 united the nation in joyousness, that spontaneous exultation was missing in the wake of the Asia Cup victory. This time the rejoicing was muted and there were no banner headlines lauding Mohammed Siraj’s brilliant performance. Instead, there was crass and shocking social media vulgarity, denigrating what he had achieved. The obscenest was the image of an exultant Siraj alongside another image of men in skullcaps throwing stones captioned “Siraj’s net practice”. As a nation, we need to bow our heads in shame for the vermin in our midst! 

Thankfully, our sportspersons – at least some of them – have spoken up for the victims and confronted these malevolent trolls head-on. While the Tendulkars, the Gavaskars and the Shastris of the world have used their demigod status wholly to embellish their coffers, there are exceptional human beings who have harnessed their celebrity power to protest injustice, even at the risk of losing personally.

Virat Kohli is not just one of the greatest batsmen this country has produced but also a marvellous human being. About his cricketing genius, suffice it to say that while Sachin is ahead in run accumulation, Virat has won many more games for India than Sachin. This is because they have approached the game differently – Sachin played for personal records whereas Kohli’s single-minded focus was on winning for India. But what makes Virat a true hero is his sheer courage, humaneness and unflinching support for his men. His strong moral compass and willingness to take personal risks to protect the values he holds dear, is what sets him apart. One can never forget his sterling defence of his beleaguered teammate after our T20 World Cup defeat to Pakistan in 2021. The trolls went ballistic, directing their fusillade of vilest abuse and threats at the only Muslim in the team, Mohammad Shami. 

In an impassioned speech, Kohli expressed solidarity with Shami, not only lashing out at the cowardly trolls who use the anonymity of social media to besmirch hard-earned reputations, but launching a frontal assault on communalism which was nothing short of condemnation of our ruler and his ilk. His soul-stirring words bear repeating:

“To me, attacking someone over their religion is the most pathetic thing that a human being can do. I have never ever even dreamt of discriminating against anyone over their religion…. there’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media…. who hide behind their identities and go after people, making fun of people and that has become social entertainment in today’s world which is so unfortunate and so sad to see.” Bravo! Kohli paid a price for his principled stand, losing the ODI captaincy and later the Test captaincy.

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Our Olympic and world champion, Neeraj Chopra is not just an extraordinary javelin-thrower but an extraordinary human being who has stood up against bigoted nationalism and patriarchy. In a remarkable exhibition of sportsmanship and decency following his memorable Olympic gold medal win, he confronted the trolls for unfairly targeting his Pakistani counterpart Arshad Nadeem, demanding that they not use his name to further their “dirty agenda”. On winning gold at the recent World Athletic Championship, he further infuriated the ‘bhakts’ by inviting his Pakistani mate Nadeem to stand next to him as he held the tricolour that enveloped them both. Mind you, Neeraj is also one of the few active sportspersons who spoke up for the women wrestlers protesting against sexual harassment by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. 

In an age of racism, crassness and bad behaviour on and off the field, one desperately looks for increasingly rare acts of decency and sportsmanship. Let me conclude with one such deed that should make us all proud to be Indian (or Bharati). At the US Open earlier this month, 43-year-old Rohan Bopanna reminded the world that gracious sportsmanship was more important than winning at any cost. In the men’s doubles final, trailing 2-4 in the deciding third set, with Bopanna’s partner Matthew Ebden serving, a forehand winner by Ebden made the game score 30-0 in their favour, at which point Bopanna informed the chair umpire that Ebden’s serve had grazed his arm. The umpire initially overruled his objection, but Bopanna insisted and ensured that she gave the point to his opponents. Bopanna lost the match but won hearts and received the biggest applause at the prize distribution ceremony.

I’d like to think that Rohan Bopanna represents who we are as a people; that the Ramesh Bidhuris and their masters are abharathiya (not Indian) aberrations who will fade away in 2024 when decency and democracy once again prevail.

Mathew John is a former civil servant. 

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