Times change people
I'm finally back to the blogging world after a self-initiated hiatus of around a year and a half. Hope that this time, the renewed fervor for writing will last a bit longer than the previous attempt. At a time when cricket and the Indian Premier League is hogging the headlines in India and has captured the imagination of the world with some superb marketing, how can a die-hard cricket fan like me be left far behind? But if u just started guessing that this is going to be another review of an IPL game, rest assured, this ain't anything remotely related to cricket. I guess there has already been an overdose of the game through IPL. Let me introduce two contrasting scenarios at this stage before moving on to the crux of the post.
Scene 1: Eden Gardens, Kolkatta, 13th May 2008, Kolkatta Knight Riders v/s Delhi DareDevils
There's only one name reverbrating in the packed Eden Gardens "Shoaib". Shoaib was the hero of the day with his match-winning spell of 4 wickets for a paltry 7 runs.
As I was witnessing history being made in IPL by Shoaib, thoughts flew back to another incident 8 years ago.
Scene 2: Eden Gardens, Calcutta, Sometime in 2000, India v/s Pakistan (First India-Pakistan series after the Kargil war)
Eden Gardens crowd turned hostile after a controversial run-out decision against Sachin, effected by Shoaib Akhtar. Again only one name on everybody's lips. "Shoaib", but this time being booed more so because of his nationality than for the decision.
Then came a thought. Is patriotism relative?? Can people who once deemed a person as a villain due to his nationality accept him as a hero, when he plays for their city. Well I believe that's exactly the concept that IPL is trying to instil in people. This incident reminds me of another very similar incident in the soccer world. Christiano Ronaldo was booed by the whole of UK, when he faked a foul against England in the World cup in 2006. But once he started playing for Manchester United, the following season, he again became the toast of the same nation that had booed him.
Dual patriotism happens all the time in soccer and it will be interesting to see if the cricket crazy fans of India have the flexibility to sustain the dual patriotism in our national game.
Signin Off...
posted by Champ at Thursday, May 15, 2008
4 Comments:
I would not term it patriotism..... The fist case where the player is playing for the country is patriotism.... the second where the player is playing for a team is not exactly patriotism, it is more just that the crowd supports the player cos he is playing for their team/city.... Well it has happened that wen Dravid was playing in Chennai and when he was scoring runs the crowd did not appreciate his performance.... SO are we really being patriotic or just selfish cos Dravid/Shohaib is playing against ones favorite team.... The same sentiments were seen wen Punjab was playing against Mumbai.... and it was mentioned by Yuvraj after the match, that some of the players playing for Punjab also play for the national side.... I don't think IPL is trying to instil any concept in the minds of ppl, it is for purely commercial reasons..... people will support any player who plays for their city/team or rather any team which they support, it is just a momentary thing, not a permanent thing.... There is no concept of patriotism involved here.....
Good going Champ. Well, I do not think I'm a great follower of this version of cricket, but I do see a madness around. And yes, it is pure and simple business than anything else. Yet another model replicated from west. What I see here is; People in general do tend to align themselves to a team closer to their place of living, education, birth. Somebody realized a business potential around it and is exploiting. But it seems it has given a new subject to public at large to discuss and fight for. Seems good so far.
Dude the dictionary meaning of Patriotism is "Love of and devotion to one's country." So I guess there is no patriotism in soccer at club level and in IPL at team level... here it is just that people support their favorite team, irrespective of who plays and who does not.... Patriotism is more of a feeling that you have towards your country and not just to a team.... What if you support India in sports but don't act in the Interests of India otherwise, then are you being patriotic....
Point well taken biru....As already discussed, "patriotism" is a misnomer. Maybe team loyalty is a better way of describing this.
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