Where has the passion gone?

In the ‘series’ against New Zealand, India lost the lone T20 match by 1 run. I did not watch the match as I was not aware of its schedule and when I read in espncricinfo about India’s narrow defeat, my reaction was like, “Oh, India lost the match by one run; hmm… what should I have for breakfast – eggs or cereals?”  

There is nothing special about the reaction. Millions of Indians don’t have time or inclination to take an interest in cricket. But such a reaction coming from me was surprising as I have always been an ardent cricket fan. I used to know each and every detail of all the cricket matches taking place, at least those involving India. I used to know who opened the innings, who came at number 4, who scored a century and in how many balls, which batting records were created, which bowling records broken and so on.  No detail was too small to look into, no number too big to memorize. In fact one time during my college days I watched every ball of an ODI cricket match involving Kenya and Bangladesh!  That is why when I look back on my reaction to India’s T20 defeat I am surprised at the utter lack of emotions evoked by the defeat. Neither was I disappointed at the loss nor did I discuss the match with any of my friends. I couldn’t care less.

What is the reason for this apparent lack of emotions? Is it just that I have lost interest in cricket or is there something wrong with cricket these days? I would like to lean towards the latter as even as recently as last month I was keenly following the England-SA test series; I watched most of the last Ashes series and when India were routed 0-8 in their tours of England and Australia I was utterly disappointed and did feel that I have been betrayed by the Indian team on whom I had so many expectations (I am leaving out the World cup 2011 victory from the list as you don’t need to be a cricket fan to celebrate the victory).  The reason all the above matches evoked strong interest was because they were all competitive matches played between two good teams and more importantly, had a context – the England-SA series determined the new No.1 Test side, India’s tours to England and Australia put their no. 1 Test ranking through a litmus test (which unfortunately India failed to pass) and the Ashes always have a sense of history associated with it. On the other hand the T20 between India and New Zealand was an orphan match. There was a feeling that the administrators, fans and even the players themselves did not care who won the match as long as they had some fun.

Meaningless matches like these not only serve no purpose but risk alienating committed fans like me in the long run. Unless and until a victory doesn’t enthrall and a defeat doesn’t shatter the fans, the match doesn’t deserve to be played and unfortunately the number of such matches are only increasing these days.

Any sport, especially cricket as it is played in only a handful of countries, needs passionate fans for survival and if the passion is taken away, slowly but surely, the fan too will go away.