BENGALURU: How crazy a fan of cricket are you? Do you follow any ritual or swear by superstitions that you believe lead your favourite team to victory?
An account planner Ammar Ali, 21, gets his friend to burp because he says it causes the wicket of the other team to fall. Ali cheers for Rising Pune Supergiants or Sunrisers Hyderbad in IPL.
He says, “My friend had some munchies and he burped. That’s when Gujarat Lions lost a wicket to Pune in the last year’s IPL. We then kept trying to get him to burp and another wicket would fall. It works sometimes but other times, it doesn’t.”
23-year-old Mubeen Mohammed Ali Khan watches the match on the same TV until the end even though he has three television sets in the house.
“When India was playing against Netherlands in the World Cup 2003, watching the match on the same TV in the hall worked. I was in school then. Seeing other fans acting crazy without moving even an inch during the match influenced me and since then,I have also been following it.”
Another cricket buff Anup Thomas also does not move while watching a match. “I can watch even a test cricket all day long. I take a break when there’s a drinks break during the match and I grab something to eat lunch then.” But moving inanimate objects might help.
Ammar adds, “This happened day before yesterday. My friend moved a chair and Hyderabad scored a six. We asked him to keep moving the chair. We got another six by Yuvraj in the same over. It worked later again though.”
The 24-year-old senior communication management trainee and a fan of Delhi Daredevils, Anup also enjoys playing cricket. He also has a ritual he follows while he gets into a match.
“When I enter the ground, I make sure that I step with my right foot first,” he says adding, “I used to bunk my school classes to come home and watch matches making excuses like I am sick. I have working parents and that was an advantage.”
This faithfulness has not gone unnoticed. Little Master, Sachin Tendulkar, sang a song with Sonu Nigam for them and Sony Max is running a campaign to cheer them on.