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The kind of crazy fan following and adulation that superstar Indian cricketers get is unmatched. The love and worship of the admirers has given the sport of cricket a whole new dimension in India.
Be it traveling miles to meet their favorite Indian cricketers or worshipping them in ways that can go from being rather cute to extremely bizarre, Indian cricket fans have done it all, and can be expected to keep breaking barriers.
In today’s trying times of the pandemic, the real value of the Indian cricket fan has come to the fore. Playing in front of empty stadiums without supporters gives a feeling of emptiness to both players and cricket viewers. There is something divine about Indian fans screaming in stadiums that drives Indian cricketers to perform.
Indian cricketers and fans: A special connection
In this feature, we dig deep into the psyche of Indian fans to find out how far they can go to meet their favorite Indian cricketers.
#1 Cycling to meet Sachin Tendulkar
Sudhir Kumar Gautam needs no introduction. He is a bonafide fan of legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Until the pandemic struck he was seen at most games in India, supporting the team. He paints his body in the Indian tricolor for every match he attends.
Earlier, he used to write ‘Tendulkar 10’ on his chest (10 was Tendulkar’s jersey number) but post the Indian cricketer’s retirement, he has changed it to ‘miss you Tendulkar 10’. In 2002, Gautam cycled all the way from Bihar to Jamshedpur to watch his favorite cricketer play, but Tendulkar got injured.
Next time, he cycled all the way to Mumbai, traveling around 2400 kilometres, hoping to meet his idol. And, when Tendulkar heard about Gautam’s story, he invited his super fan to meet him. After that, Tendulkar started providing Gautam tickets for matches held in India.
And when India won the World Cup in 2011, the Master Blaster invited Gautam into the Indian dressing room, and the two posed with the trophy.
#2 Fan gets a transfer, just to meet MS Dhoni
In the most recent instance of fan’s wish of meeting his favorite Indian cricketer being fulfilled, an MS Dhoni admirer was able to meet the former India captain under intriguing circumstances.
Dev, one of the members of the MeenaBagh Staff, got to spend some time with Dhoni and also got the former Indian cricketer’s autograph on his mobile cover. Dhoni and family were recently holidaying in Ratnari in Himachal Pradesh and were staying at the MeenaBagh Hotel.
Dev, who was working as a staff member at MeenaBagh Shimla, asked for a transfer to MeenaBagh Ratnari so he could play steward to his favorite cricketer.
In an Instagram post, MeenaBagh revealed that Dev had tried in vain to meet Dhoni in 2008 when the cricketer visited Rohru (Himachal) for a tournament. He wanted an autograph but got the police baton instead!
Dev says his phone cover, where Dhoni left his autograph, will remain unchanged forever!
#3 This Virat Kohli fan with 16 tattoos of Indian captain
30-something Pintu Behra is a small-scale contractor in Berhampur, Odisha. That did not stop him from inking 16 tattoos of star Indian cricketer and current captain Virat Kohli. One of the tattoos is Kohli’s jersey number 18, which is on his back.
Behra saved money and spent more than Rs 1 lakh for these tattoos. After waiting for five years to meet the famous Indian cricketer, the fan’s wish came true before the first Test of the three-match series between India and South Africa in Vizag in 2019.
After finishing his training, Kohli asked the security to let Behra into the players' area. The latter told TOI about his meeting with the Indian captain:
“Kohli waved his hand and asked me to come inside. He was smiling. I was shirtless. He shook my hand and hugged me. I couldn’t say a thing in front of him. I started crying and said ‘I waited for four years sir. Thank you, sir’. He saw all the tattoos and counted them. He was saying ‘wow...wonderful’. He checked every tattoo. He was so so happy.”
#4 Fan sketches Rohit Sharma
Team India opener and Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma has a loyal fan following, like most of his fellow Indian cricketers. With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world last year, the sporting calendar came to a halt.
Even when cricket resumed a while later, fans were not allowed to enter the stadiums. A Rohit Sharma fan, however, decided to use social media to express his admiration for the senior Indian cricketer.
A Twitter user named Omkar Patil shared a wonderful sketch of Rohit in the Mumbai Indians jersey. Patil uploaded the post with the caption:
“Sketch of @ImRo45 sir✍️....by me How's it... waiting for reply @ImRo45 Sir.”
The sketch won a lot of appreciation on social media.
#5 When a female fan refused to leave Rahul Dravid’s home
It is no secret that former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid enjoyed an immense following among female fans during his playing days. However, the nice guy of Indian cricket found himself in a spot once when a woman admirer of his came to visit him, but refused to leave his home.
Narrating details of the funny incident during an episode of the show ‘What the Duck’ in 2016, Dravid revealed:
“I had just come from a tour and I was sleeping in the afternoon. When I woke up, my parents told me to go and meet this fan who had come all the way from Hyderabad. She was waiting there for an hour and a half. At first, I thought it would be a simple taking autograph or photograph thing.”
“She said, ‘no I am not going to leave. I have left my home and come. I will stay here only’ and I was taken aback. It ended quite well but it was a wake-up call for my parents that you don’t let anyone in just like that,” Dravid recalled.
#6 Fan falls at Sourav Ganguly’s feet
Current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had passionate fans rooting for him during his playing days. Ganguly lovers, in fact, worshipped him.
Proof was on display when an ardent fan of the former Indian cricketer ran onto the field to touch Ganguly's feet during an IPL encounter between Deccan Chargers and Pune Warriors in Hyderabad in April 2011.
In the picture, the young fan is seen holding Ganguly’s feet with the batsman and the umpire trying to stop him. Another former Indian cricketer (not in pic), Yuvraj Singh, is at the other end, watching on in amazement.
#7 When a 93-year-old fan met Virender Sehwag in 2018
Virender Sehwag was a maverick batsman but he had a fan following cutting across age barriers. During IPL 2018, the former Indian cricketer was the mentor and head of cricket operations of Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab). A 93-year-old well-wisher from Patiala came to meet Sehwag in Chandigarh that season.
Sehwag shared a picture of his elderly fan on social media and wrote:
"Felt extremely touched on meeting Om Prakash ji, who is 93 years old and came from Patiala to meet me in Chandigarh and expressed his love for me. Dada ko Pranam."
Punjab Kings also uploaded photos of Sehwag hugging and touching the feet of the senior citizen.
#8 When a fan claimed to be Yuvraj Singh’s girlfriend
In what can be termed bizarre, a female fan of Yuvraj Singh named Huma Anjum created a quiz in 2015 on a famous web browser, through which she claimed that she was the former Indian cricketer’s girlfriend.
The quiz asked fans to guess Yuvraj Singh’s latest girlfriend - the options being Shardha Kapoor, Alia Bhat and Huma Anjum herself. The right answer was set as Huma.
When Yuvraj came to know of the same, he was shocked and tweeted:
“Just noticed something on the phone! Koi batayega yeh Huma kaun hai?
Huma posted a video and apologized to Yuvraj, claiming she was a crazy fan of the Indian cricketer.
#9 A long journey, an accident and help from Hardik Pandya
Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s ardent fan from Coimbatore, Mugunthan, has tattooed the Indian cricketer’s name in 16 different languages. In September 2019, Mugunthan decided to travel 3000 kms by road, from Coimbatore to Dharamsala, to watch Pandya play in a T20I against South Africa.
Things, however, did not go according to play for Mugunthan as he met with an accident near Jabalpur. He was taken to a government hospital and later to a private one, where doctors advised a surgery.
After hearing the news, Pandya was moved and decided to foot the bill for his fan’s treatment. Mugunthan later returned to Coimbatore, as a bigger admirer of Pandya, after completing his surgery.
#10 Zaheer Khan proposed on live television
In the midst of an intense India-Pakistan encounter in 2005, a female fan of left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan grabbed the limelight when she was captured by the cameras holding a ‘Zaheer I love you’ placard.
For a few moments, the tension eased as the former Indian cricketer’s fan blew kisses to Zaheer, who was spotted sitting alongside Yuvraj in the dressing room. The mischievous Yuvraj coaxed Zaheer into responding to the female fan. The somewhat shy fast bowler reciprocated by blowing a kiss back to the lady, and the stadium went berserk.
Even Virender Sehwag, who was batting out in the middle, enjoyed the cute moment and was captured smiling at the ‘lovely’ exchange between Zaheer and his fan.
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