Inside the Bizarre and Violent World of Cricket Fandom in India

“In the past, disappointed fans have run amok, trolled cricketers, pelted them with fruits, hurled bottles at the field, and even attacked their homes. Even cricketers’ wives and children as young as 5 years old have been trolled and met with rape and death threats. In 1987, disappointed Indian fans rioted, rival groups clashed, set things on fire, and even stabbed each other to death.
“A typical Indian cricket fan is largely male, between 14 and 45 years old,” Sharda Ugra, a sports journalist who has been writing about cricket for over 30 years, told VICE. “This is the rough demographic for all sports fans, everywhere.”
But there’s been a shift in the nature of this fandom over the last few years, as evidenced by the events from last week. “The word ‘fan’ itself comes from the word ‘fanatic.’ Today, fandom has reached a level where fans on the ground and social media believe they have to perform a particular role and act a particular way. Right now, it’s way more jingoistic, with an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ narrative,” Ugra said. ”