Bookies behind crowd trouble?
Shady Moosavi - 13 November 2002

Cricket is a funny game, more so off the field than on it. It’s actually even funnier in the middle; and by that I’m referring to the stadium stands that form the barrier between the cricket field and the outside world.

It is always amusing to see cricket-crazy spectators dancing in joy at every boundary scored or every wicket taken by the home team, while trying to emulate the proper Mexican Wave, shouting slogans (at times even derogatory lines aimed at the visiting team), or, in more extreme cases, burning firecrackers in a display of celebration.

However, nothing can be more disheartening than when meaner emotions rears their ugly head and induces those very people to take the forbidden step towards extreme fanaticism. In such cases, just as a break in rhythm occurring in the afore-mentioned Mexican Wave, the sporting attitude of the people loses it’s direction, and all that can be seen or heard from there-on is single-minded, selfish and unsporting.

This is just what happened in the first India-West Indies one- dayer at Jamshedpur. With the Windies seemingly cruising to victory, the Indian home fans saw red, and on came the barrage of debris, primarily consisting of water bottles. With the calm and composed Windies batsmen having to go back inside, and come back out, it rattled even the grittiest of them, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose wicket turned the game on it’s head. That seemed to satisfy the crowd. Their work was done. But as fate would have it, Ramnaresh Sarwan ensured that the deserving team won. It would have been criminal to have any other result.

However, I feel the Windies should have been awarded that match by default. It would have sent a message to the Jamshedpur crowd, as well the Nagpur and Rajkot crowds to follow, that this is not how you behave. However, that was not done, which resulted in the crowds at the next two venues following up in the same way.

The next incident of crowd trouble happened in the second one- dayer at Nagpur, when India, despite losing two wickets, were seemingly cruising along with VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly at the helm.

If that was surprising, the strangest was yet to come. In the third one-dayer, with India at 200/1 in the 28th over while chasing West Indies’ 'meagre' total of 300, it would have taken a very pessimistic person (make that an extremely pessimistic person) to write off the home team’s chances of victory. After all, Virender Sehwag was still there, his latest boundary doing everything - in case the Rajkot crowd were under that illusion - to prove that Ganguly’s loss did nothing affect him.

Perhaps the reason lies behind the Indian crowds’ love for their batting stars. Did the Nagpur crowd revolt because there was no Sehwag to provide the fireworks? Well, they still had Laxman and Ganguly. And what about Rajkot? Do the people there love Ganguly to such an extent that they would start behaving the way they did almost immediately after his loss, even if it threatened India’s chances of winning the game? I don’t think so. After all, it’s not Kolkota.

Or maybe there was a mathematician among the crowd, who, realising that India were way ahead in the Duckworth-Lewis method, wanted to ensure their team's victory (and probably get home quickly) by ending the game then and there, managing also to convince the crowd of his ‘good’ intentions. But if I was among the crowd, would I want to end the game when Sehwag was going great guns and breaking records? No, thank you.

If I wanted to give more reasons, I would say it was probably because Sachin Tendulkar was not playing the series, and this was just one way for the crowds to vent their anger. Then there’s also the reason that...

But I might as well stop here. My head has been spinning ever since the third one-dayer, and it would turn into a flying saucer before I find out the reason why. I suppose it’s probably political inclinations. Though God knows what politics would want with cricket. But think about it, nothing else would turn a completely peaceful, cheery environment into one of discontent and hatred.

All I can say is that, in future, matches should be held only at upper-class, urban centres, like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. There hasn’t been any history of crowd trouble in these places, as far as I know. The crowd there is the sensible, literate kind, and, as we know, chaos is caused by the illiterate minds.

But well, you never know if that would help. There’s a slight doubt that the bookies have risen again, this time influencing crowds to try to turn results around. A possibility, what say?

The views expressed above are solely those of the guest contributor and are carried as written, with only minor editing for grammar, to preserve the original voice. These contributed columns are solely personal opinion pieces and reflect only the feelings of the guest contributor. Their being published on CricInfo.com does not amount to an endorsement by CricInfo's editorial staff of the opinions expressed.
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