This is a pretty harsh statement but it is absolutely true and all of us are guilty of the same. All the fans of the Indian cricket team are some of the most loyal fans in the world but there is hardly a more confused set of fans as well which will be explained below. The Indian cricket fan is the heart and soul of Indian cricket because without them there is nothing to see and nothing to play for. If the Indian cricket fan devices to not watch cricket anymore then the players will not be as famous.
So, let’s look at how the Indian cricket fan is loyal and confused at the same time
The Indian cricket fan is unique
Indian cricket really took off after the 1983 World Cup win and after that the fans of Indian cricket started to grow and as more famous players started to play for India more and more people started watching cricket and they have been fans ever since. First it was the era of Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and the fans loved these 2 and the young players looked upto them and wanted to become like them. Indian cricket fans needed superstars to get more eyes to watch the sport. The revolutionary change happened in 1989 when Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in international cricket and after that there was no limits for Indian cricket and the fans were in the tens of millions.
Sachin Tendulkar became the poster child and from there the loyalty towards Indian cricket started to grow for the fans as they saw that there is 1 man who will always give his best for India and he will try to win each and every match and the fans saw this and they became more loyal to Indian cricket and for 10 years Sachin Tendulkar had created an army Of fans. Then Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman started playing and they also had their fans who in turn were loyal to Indian cricket. Till now there was no confusion and then MS Dhoni arrived and the fanfare went to another level and a few years later Virat Kohli brought in the youth of today to watch cricket and the IPL was responsible for making the women watch cricket on a regular basis so the loyalty was strong
In recent years the confusion has started to creep in the Indian cricket fan and it has been 10 years since India won an ICC tournament so the anger is justified. However when the fans see that a player is not doing well for one match say Surya Kumar Yadav is not doing well they say remove him and when he does well in the next match they say that keep him In the side. These days there are fans of individual players like Viratians, Rohitians and MSDians who want to see the other players fail. And recently the Indian T20I team decided to go forward without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma but as soon as India lost 2 matches to the West Indies everyone is saying bring them back. They were the ones who wanted them out in the first place. The Indian cricket fan should be consistent and not change the goalpost each day , that reflects poorly on the entire cricket system.
