Udhayanidhi And His Dravidian Ilk Have No Connection To Ethos Of 'Knowledgeable Chennai Fans' 

Last Saturday, 14 October, a video clip emerged of a section of the crowd at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' even as Pakistan wicket-keeper-batsman Muhammad Rizwan was returning to the pavilion, after getting out during the India versus Pakistan World Cup match.

Little would anyone have imagined that the incident would be played up by the sections of Tamilians who identify themselves as 'Dravidians'. 

Quick on the starting block was Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Tamil Nadu Minister of, no wait — he has stated that he made those comments on Sanatana Dharma not as a Minister — so it is likely that Udhayanidhi Stalin, the DMK leader, tweeted: "India is renowned for its sportsmanship and hospitality. However, the treatment meted out to Pakistan players at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is unacceptable and a new low. Sports should be a unifying force between countries, fostering true brotherhood. Using it as a tool to spread hatred is condemnable."

Now, what was the treatment meted out to the Pakistan team?

Well, ‘Jai Shri Ram' was chanted and 'Vande Mataram' was sung in chorus. Who said this was unacceptable?

Did the Pakistan team complain about the crowds?

Were the players intimidated by the partisan fans?

So far, there is news that the Pakistan think-tank has taken it up with the ICC, though it is not clear what the specific nature of the complaint is.

To be sure, their coach Mickey Arthur did speak strongly about the whole thing being run as a BCCI event and not the ICC's. But his diatribe was specifically against the administration and nothing about the fans in the stadium. 

But Udhayanidhi, who is clearly aiming for national headlines, put out that tweet, which in reality was a barely-disguised dog-whistle to his followers to make it as a 'vile northies’ vs ‘sporting southies' sparring match.

He jumping into the muddied waters is clearly a new gambit that should be seen as an extension of his outpourings on Sanatana Dharma.

When Chepauk Rose To New Heights

The Dravidian lackeys quickly latched onto Udhayanidhi’s tweet, and the expected narrative spooled out on predictable grooves on social media platforms. And on cue, emerged the old video of the Chennai crowds giving a standing ovation to the Wasim Akram-led Pakistan team after they won the Test against India at the Chepauk on 31 January, 1999. 

Indeed that moment on that sultry afternoon in Chepauk, where I was present as a cricket correspondent, transcended beyond sports and national pride, and stood for human dignity and sporting grace. Chennai fans, well and truly, elevated the occasion.  

But for long, the criticism of the Dravidian lot in Tamil Nadu has been that the cricket ecosystem in the state, both in terms of players as well as crowd participation at the hoary M A Chidambaram stadium, is dominated by one community (read: Brahmins).

Having come down heavily on the very same crowds all along and now to bask in their glory is both disgraceful. Adorning oneself in borrowed plumes is always undignified.

Also, sporting crowds are emotional. There is a mob mentality and the febrile excitement of the moment gets played up. Forty years back, at the very same Chepauk, on a late wintery afternoon, I had witnessed, as a fan, the other side of the very same Chennai crowd. 

When Chepauk Plumbed The Depths

It was the West Indies tour of India in the aftermath of the 1983 World Cup.

The Chennai Test was the sixth and final of the series, which had already been sewn up by the visitors as they had won at Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Calcutta.

The Chennai Test had nothing much riding on it, except the pride of the players. The match was further hit as the first day was totally lost to rain.  West Indies batted for close to one-and-a-half-days and notched up 313.

When India batted, it was late on the third afternoon. The West Indian bowlers, especially the redoubtable Malcolm Marshall, were all fired up, and he had prised out Anshuman Gaekwad and Dilip Vengsarkar off successive deliveries.

Sunil Gavaskar, who batted two-down in the match and Navjot Singh Sidhu, were trying to stem the rot. But suddenly there was crowd trouble as bottles and a few other things were hurled at the West Indies players. Their captain Clive Lloyd quickly took his team inside and refused to take the field.

The mood in the stands, though not exactly menacing, was surely agitated. Aside from the missiles, the words aimed at the West Indies players were equally sharp. Most of the jibes were typically based on their skin colour.

These days it would be flagged for extreme racism, and deemed much worse than religious chorus. But then, it was all deemed part of the banter from the stands.

Anyway, it took police assurance and a word from the State Governor that nothing untoward will happen for the West Indies players to be cajoled back into the field. And senior Indian players also needed to step out to pacify the agitated fans in the stands. 

(Gavaskar, as many would remember, went on to make his then record-breaking 30th Test century. He ended up at 236 not out — an Indian batsman's highest Test innings score at that time.)

It Takes All Sorts 

The chanting of 'Jai Shri Ram', even if unpalatable to some sections, is not exactly a crime. Mocking at a player's colour, on the other hand, is.

The point is, would it be right to brand the Chennai crowd as a bunch of racists based on the fevered incident that occurred in 1983? 

Cricket takes all sorts (It Takes All Sorts is incidentally the title of the fine book written by the respected cricket writer Peter Roebuck) and the crowds that come to the stadium are typically myriad in spirit and sensibility.

The fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium last Saturday afternoon did not hold themselves and their enthusiasm back. If it was not to your liking, you sure can express it. But to use it to create more fissures than already exist between the North and the South is not cricket.

It is not too difficult to guess how this will play out in the coming days. The smart money is on the Dravidoligists to orchestrate some show of bonhomie for the Pakistani players when they are in Chennai, in a bid to play out a narrative that the Tamils are accommodating and sportive (the innuendo being 'Northies' are  bigoted and villainous).

A placard or two with nice words for the Pakistan team will show up in the stadium. There will be clips, that will doubtless, do the rounds on social media platforms. More rants and outrages would follow. More bad blood would ensue. Moral high-grounds will be clambered on. Brownie points will be taken.   

The essential goodness of the knowledgeable Chennai fans — even if the knowledge is basically an obsession with cricketing trivia by just hundreds of folks, as memorably put by an Editor of this publication — would once again be, unfortunately, used for more political games.