7 things Indian cricket fans say whenever India loses

You are supposed to be happy and satisfied when your team is ranked No. 1 in ODIs and No. 2 in Tests. But we are never satisfied with our team’s performances. We always tend to point out some flaw or the other. The team may win ten games in a row, but when it loses the next two, the fans run amok. India lost the recent one day series in South Africa and once again emotions were high. So what exactly does a common Indian cricket fan say when the team loses?

#1. Siding with your favourite players who are not present in the team

This is the first thing that happens. Most of us have one or two players whom we would like to see in the team but are dropped instead. We call for some players to be dropped in order to make room for our favourite players. When seniors perform poorly, people call for their heads and ask for youth power to be injected. And when the youngsters fail, they stress the importance of experienced campaigners.

Some people want Gambhir to be picked in the side again. And there are a select few, who also want Viru to be picked despite his dismal performances in the Ranji season.

#2. Somehow shift the blame on the IPL

This has been the recent trend. Whenever the team struggles, everyone starts blaming the IPL. People say that the youngsters are only attracted to the IPL and not the longer formats of the game. And the irony is, most of these critics enjoy watching the IPL when it’s being played, and start cursing it when it gets over.

Youngsters tasting success in the IPL have always been criticized for failing to adapt to the Test format.

#3. Calling for the captain’s and coach’s head

MS Dhoni, despite all his accomplishments, is still the most scrutinized captain of all time. He has his own set of haters who call for his head whenever India loses. Calls for a younger captain with fresh ideas start doing the rounds whenever we lose a series. The same goes with the coach as well. Jokes on Duncan Fletcher are always doing the rounds on the internet.

The Captain and the Coach know that an another overseas whitewash might invite an axe to their respective positions.

#4. Blaming the BCCI and the domestic structure

We all love blaming the BCCI. The whole world does. The board gets blamed for not training the players properly to perform well on overseas tours and also for the fat contracts they hand out to the players. The domestic structure doesn’t provide enough pitches which can assist seamers – that is a complaint that every fan makes whenever we struggle abroad.

The BCCI might be scheduling a lot of ‘A’ tours of late, but still people blame them for their failure to provide fast bouncy pitches for the domestic games.

#5. There are no fast bowlers in this country

You can always hear this from a distraught Indian fan whenever our bowling attacks gets pummelled or goes wicketless for long periods of time. In 2003, Zaheer Khan was our only hope in the fast bowling department. Ten years later, he retains that spot. During this period, guys who showed some promise like Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth have all been dismissed as trolls.

Wonder if any other country pins their hope on a 35 yr old fast bowler to bowl them to a victory.

#6. Match fixed?

With the recent spot fixing scandal jolting the entire cricketing community in the country, every poor performance is being looked at with suspicion. Some people tend to believe that the players simply throw away their wickets and give away easy runs in order to earn quick money.

Leaking too many runs? Watch out! People are doubting your integrity.

#7. Curse the entire sport

There are people who take advantage of the team’s failures to curse the entire sport. They blame cricket for the attention it gets and the attention which the other sports do not get. One has to wonder how cricket is the reason behind the hockey team’s dismal performances over the years and the football team’s inability to enter into the top 100 in the FIFA rankings.

Cricket’s popularity has often been blamed for the sorry state of affairs Indian football has been in for a long long time.