Here's Why You Are a Fan of Your Favourite Team

There's a fair bit of cricket to start with, followed by Formula 1 and football. Lessgoo!

How did you become a fan of the team that you are a fan of right now?

This question has bugged me quite a bit. Even though I'm not a football fan, I've always wondered why people get obsessed with a specific team? There are small factors like ethos and style of play when it comes to the fanbase. And then there is reality: Teams play to win and not uphold some particular 'style of play' if they keep losing. Going by that logic, it's the success of a team that determines its fanbase.

Cut to the IPL, and the statement is cent per cent accurate. MI and CSK, the two most successful teams, have the lion's share of fanbase; more than half the fans. RCB has many fans, though this is not primarily due to the team's success. Instead, it's individual brilliance, which I'll bring upon later.

IPL Diaries

I started watching cricket in 2011, at a time when Dhoni was at the peak of his prowess and Sachin inching closer to his swansong. Expectedly, I became a fan of CSK and a bigger fan of MSD. The close encounters they had at Chepauk gave me enough thrills for the night.

My friends then – Four of us who were cricket-mad – were fans of MI, DD, KKR and CSK. The MI fan's father was a big Sachin fan, so he knew the legacy of Sachin and thus the fandom. He still is one MI-ian, courtesy of their killer performances in the IPL. The DD guy loved Sehwag and his style of play and did not bother whether his team was struggling to get past the last place on the points table. The KKR guy, a big fan of Gautam Gambhir, had an elder brother, a massive fan of Sourav Ganguly, and hence the team. For me, none of my parents watched cricket, so there wasn't any family induced fandom. All the admiration towards CSK was because of its success during those years (2011-15).

Post the match-fixing scandal, I had lost a bit of trust in the team. And I slowly ventured out of the fandom. It was time to move on: I couldn't support a Rising Pune Supergiant just for two years; except for Dhoni, that team did not seem like a proper T20 outfit. Sunrisers Hyderabad had made their debut in 2013, and they were putting in some underdog performances. To date, I remember the match when SRH were 29-6, and Darren Sammy hit 60 to get them to 144. But then again, CSK had their best opening pair of Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum, and it seemed foolish to leave the team then.

In 2016, there was no CSK, and I watched all the Sunrisers games: right from the disastrous defeat to RCB in the first match to the victory in the finale. It seemed the team was a one-person show. David Warner would hit 35+ in 9 out of 10 games, enough for the bowlers to defend. The joy of supporting an underdog team is on another level. You expect defeat for most of the match, but then your team still finds a way to wriggle back and win. The crowning glory in 2016 was the cherry on the cake.

Recent team management issues with talismanic skipper Warner prompts me to rethink – is my time over as an SRH fan? Kane is great, but you can't leave out Warner – you need guys who are passionate to play for the side (like Rohit Sharma and Mumbai Indians) and not just anyone who can play for any team (with money). For the time being, I'll still root for SRH until next season's retentions are official.

Vettel Fan

Passion for cars and regular updates of the sports page lead me to follow Formula 1. It was 2012 when I started, and Sebastian Vettel was a beast back then. Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton – there were many class drivers then, but they couldn't take my focus away from Vettel's back-to-back wins. I didn't know many technicalities and driving skills of each driver. I just knew that Vettel and his car were fast, and so I kept rooting for him.

The historic Indian Grand Prix had been two seasons old by 2012, and in the 2013 season, Vettel went on to record his hat-trick of wins at the venue. The impressive performance in Noida gave another reason to remain a Vettel fan – the only person to win the Indian GP to date.

In 2014-end, when Vettel had been crowned the World Champion for the 4th time, he was touted to succeed Michael Schumacher as an all-time great in the sport. But things weren't so rosy for the German since then, with 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton going on to record five championships in the next six years. Blame the slow Ferraris, the unlucky Aston Martin, along with the superfast Mercs. Not taking anything away from Lewis, but yeah, I'm still a fan of Vettel. I hope he wins the championship one more time before retirement.

Watching From a Distance

Football fever is not something I've caught yet. The usual manic that happens every four years, when my friends line up to support their favourites for FIFA WC, puzzled me. Then there's the club games- EPL, La Liga and of course, the UCL. There's unlimited action when it comes to football - no rain interruptions here (sigh), and some action happening almost every day.

But it's not like I've not tried. During the 2013-14 season, I closely followed the EPL to return as a fan - only briefly - of Manchester City (they won the title that year; I'm a bandwagon fan). But don't take me for a Cityzen – seriously! Since then, I haven't watched many matches except for the super hyped-up UCL finals. So yeah, I'm not a fan of any football team in particular. But being a passive participant in fan banter gave me some insight into the diversity among football fans.

There are many kinds of supporters: There's one die-hard team-supporter (read 'team'), another viewer whose favourite player is in the game, and then there's yet another – an admirer of the playing style of the team. And there's a fourth, though not any supporter, still figuring out whether to lose a night's sleep to watch the match.

The True Fan Debate

Individual brilliance has carved a fanbase for many teams (PSG's rise in followers count is the latest). Supporting a team for the individuals in it is excellent; it's nothing wrong or disloyal. Messi to PSG was unbelievable, but when such transfers happen, the realisation of whether you were a 'team fan' or not occurs.

Imagine RCB without Virat and AB. Less than half their fans would remain. In the IPL, it's acceptable that you support a team for the players they have. After all, it's the players that play and win it for the team. The same applies to football. Too.

What if you support multiple teams? Firstly, I don't think it's uncommon to root for a group of underdogs or the wooden-spooners. Everyone loves to see them win (except against their team). Secondly, imagine the final stages of a league: Your team is at the mercy of another rival for a qualification spot. Wouldn't you support the rival team now? There it is; Two reasons why it's time the loyalists put the multiple team debate to rest. After all, you watch sport for enjoyment, so fandom is a choice.