It’s been more than a week since India’s defeat in the World Cup final and most of our tears have either dried up or been wiped away. We have plunged headlong into celebrating Team India’s victories in the ongoing T-20 series. What better way to address grief or disappointment in these instantaneous times than drastically shrinking the time we have for it? Yet, we must confront a few questions that loomed on that Sunday evening, above the stadium, in our living rooms. Why was there such absolute silence in the stadium, why was it that, even if most of us agreed and accepted that Australia was the better team, very few of us applauded Travis Head’s remarkable catch or his century? The Prime Minister walking into the dressing room and downplaying the defeat was a powerful signal to all of us to rethink our responses. For, what was on display was where the ethics of the individual clashed with the ethics of the crowd — in a spectator sport, that gap is more conspicuous.
After all, today, virtually everything is a spectator sport: Cricket, festivals, election campaigns, even a discussion on a policy intervention. Cheers and jeers are our constant background music — if someone has to win, someone must lose. This, even though we are much more confident as a cricketing nation than ever. Team India was dominant throughout the World Cup, there is no debate that they have a formidable team, the IPL teams are among the best in the world, and the centre of gravity of the game has shifted to India away from the UK, Australia and South Africa.
Yet, we don’t seem as self-assured about our defeats as we are about our victories. Maybe, in the long arc of our sporting history, our victories are still so new, so few, that defeat is hard to accept. Listen to the man-woman-child on the street in interviews after the match. Everyone flagged that Australia was the better team but only a few said that it wasn’t India’s day, that India gave her best, that someone has to win and someone has to lose. Most of us blamed the Indian players: They didn’t have a plan, they didn’t go on the attack, Rohit Sharma’s batting was irresponsible, we don’t have the winning spirit, and so on.
The key to sportsmanship is about watering the seeds of growth and friendship in the soil of rivalries. Yes, sport gives us the identity of a spectator but it also reinforces our social identity and responsibility. Sport is one of the few disciplines that teach us to accept defeat as a mere event of the day. Celebrate skills and success but also be humble enough to accept and respect the laws of chance. The onus is on us. Are we ready to accept our heroes when they don’t deliver, when they are defeated? Are spectators also stakeholders in sports? Should we refer to ourselves as a crowd or a million heartbeats for our heroes?
For a young country where resources will always be limited, where the accident of birth can define your future, where the spirit of competition permeates every aspect of life, where divides are magnified by social media, where we invent rival teams even if there are none, accepting defeat with grace will take time, awareness and education. This is also a time when we are celebrating our successes, linking them to national pride and self-worth — medals in the Olympics, the record number of Golds in the Asian Games. When national pride and achievement become melded with the playing field, it is hard to be fair and generous to the other side.
For, such a society will inevitably place primacy on result over effort. Mahatma Gandhi asserted that full effort is full victory and most philosophies around ethics underline the duty aspect rather than result. However, that’s now seen as a weakness. The argument that participating is enough is mocked and seen as the reason why we remained at the bottom of the barrel. Even in organisations, the most valuable are those who are seen as winners — at home, in their mark sheets, the cut-off, the rank is important. The result: We are all competitors, my win means you will be defeated, there can never be a win-win. Each individual shaped like this is part of the crowd in a stadium. If they cannot accept the defeat of their children or themselves, how can they find themselves prepared to handle defeat in a key match? This is more so when sports demand a collective behaviour display of loyalty. There is a lot of literature on crowd behaviour to argue that people who gather in a group setting sometimes lose their individuality — deindividuation — and, leaning on the power of anonymity, lose the ability to think or act rationally. One popular collective behaviour theory explains that crowd behaviour is formed through the process of social interactions and is guided by unique social norms established by members within a crowd.
That is why, for sports to bloom, for sportspersons to realise their full potential, their fans — we — need to understand the power of defeat. We need to know that if victory is shared, so should defeat. Sportsmanship is an ethos that asserts considerations of fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship for one’s competitors. No other aspect of our daily life or popular culture reinforces these values as strongly. Let us teach our children that not everything is win-win. In the playing field, admiring your rival’s excellence, gracefully and generously accepting your defeat, are as important as skills in helping seal a victory.
Nilay is the author of Being Good, Aaiye, Insaan Banaen & Ethikos. He teaches courses on ethics, values and behaviour.
He is also a doctoral fellow in Gandhian Studies from ICSSR
In the playing field, admiring your rival’s excellence, gracefully and generously accepting your defeat, are important
15
5
30.11.2023
It’s been more than a week since India’s defeat in the World Cup final and most of our tears have either dried up or been wiped away. We have plunged headlong into celebrating Team India’s victories in the ongoing T-20 series. What better way to address grief or disappointment in these instantaneous times than drastically shrinking the time we have for it? Yet, we must confront a few questions that loomed on that Sunday evening, above the stadium, in our living rooms. Why was there such absolute silence in the stadium, why was it that, even if most of us agreed and accepted that Australia was the better team, very few of us applauded Travis Head’s remarkable catch or his century? The Prime Minister walking into the dressing room and downplaying the defeat was a powerful signal to all of us to rethink our responses. For, what was on display was where the ethics of the individual clashed with the ethics of the crowd — in a spectator sport, that gap is more conspicuous.
After all, today, virtually everything is a spectator sport: Cricket, festivals, election campaigns, even a discussion on a policy intervention. Cheers and jeers are our constant background music — if someone has to win, someone must lose. This, even though we are much more confident as a cricketing nation than ever. Team India was dominant throughout the World Cup, there is no debate that they have a formidable team, the IPL........
© Indian Express
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