How to identify a plastic cricket fan?

A boy watching 2014 T20 World Cup on TV, shouted, “What the heck are you doing? Damn it! Hit out or get out. I don’t know why he is being given so many chances to play for the team. His career has ended, now. He does not have a right to play for India.”

The next day, same boy travelling in a local train along with his friends, smirked, “You know what, yesterday’s match was fixed. My friend had already got an SMS one hour before the match that India would lose.” The friend who was listening till now was shocked with the revelation, “Are you serious?” (Even though, having heard from his friend after every match). Thinking for a moment he continued to speak, “They could not hit even a single ball. How is that possible when it is not fixed? It was so easy to play those deliveries. They just needed to play a straight drive over the covers.” Listening the entire conversation, two thoughts came into my mind. Did they just ridicule the game of cricket or they were just ridiculous comments? I am sure many of you might have gone through the same at some point in your life and came out with a disgust.

The same boy who believes everything is scripted, watched the entire match and was involved during the match. This is a typical behaviour of every so called die-hard cricket fan or ‘Plastic cricket fan’ as they might be labelled. We have seen numerous instances where these people have reacted obnoxiously to a result not going in favour of India. Many of us might have seen the horrifying sight of fans burning the effigies of their idols or pelting stones at their home. These demonstrations used to happen on the streets in the yester years. But today, with advent of social media, trolls and memes have become popular modes of e-demonstrations. A single tweet had triggered a nationwide revolution in Egypt and this was just a single cricket match. Sometimes the power given by social media to us makes me wonder whether it is being misused.

With the above tendencies and behaviour, spotting a plastic cricket fan will be a child’s play. To make it simpler, following are 3 types of plastic cricket fan.

The Two-faced: One who suffers from a short term memory loss and shows multiple personality disorder 

This person is a die-hard fan of a legend. One might find the person following that legend everywhere on social media and posting pictures and statistics of that legend. But lightning strikes when an unfortunate moment (triggered by his legend) in a match becomes vital in a defeat of India. Suddenly, your Facebook wall will be full of shock and disdain and you would find it hard to believe that the person is the same die-hard fan who is now not using his left brain. This situation makes you wonder whether you should trust this person in real life.

The Over-smart: One who thinks every match is ‘fixed’, irrespective of a loss or a win 

In our lives, we will always find a person in a group of friends, who will be heard saying, “The match is fixed”, irrespective whether India wins or not.
These people will typically have a friend’s friend who is in touch with another friend who is in touch with a (so-called) bookie. They will pride themselves of having insider information of the match. They will cheer for India during the match but once the result is out they will try to enforce in you the faith that everyone in world is corrupt and it is stupid to believe in what we see on the television. These fans are among the first ones coming up with conspiracy theories about how players are involved in spot fixing and other malicious activities.

The Blind follower: One who does not have a clear opinion of its own and always follows someone else

These fans are worse than the above mentioned as they will encourage and endorse the other types without having a thought of their own. One should be always cautious of these people as they will never project their true self and someone else always controls what they endorse or speak. These fans are the ones who will ‘Like’, ‘Share’ and ‘Comment’ on every possible discussion without knowing or believing a thing. They derive satisfaction from being in the elite know-it-all category.

Now that 3 types of plastic cricket fans have been uncovered. Please beware of them in the future and let me know if there are more types which you have experienced.

Originally Published: Sportskeeda