IBL 2013: Where stars like Saina, Lee Chong Wei are bigger than the teams

Sports leagues are built on the loyalty of fans, whose allegiances lie with their teams and not with players who could be here today and gone tomorrow. If new Barcelona signing Neymar were to walk through the streets of Madrid, even a Brazilian would boo him. Sports even divides cities. The city of Liverpool chooses between the red half of Merseyside (Liverpool) and the blue half (Everton). Manchester is split between Manchester United and Manchester City. Yet last night it was hard to believe we were witnessing a Mumbai Masters vs Krrish Delhi Smashers match in Mumbai. Such was the fickle support at the NSCI stadium that one thing was clear – in the Indian Badminton League, there are no geographic allegiances yet. [caption id=“attachment_1048873” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Fans come to Saina Nehwal, not the Hyderabad Hotshots. AFP[/caption] Lee Chong Wei was probably the only one who had unconditional support from the Mumbai crowd. But it was not his team the people were cheering for, it was the player. You may have heard the phrase ’no player is bigger than the team’ in numerous football leagues — and even in the NBA or the Major League Baseball… but in the IBL, it’s different. “If it was Saina Nehwal versus someone from the Mumbai team, we’d still support Saina,” said 21-year old Aashay Tinaikar. Tinaikar and his friends were constantly shouting out Jwala Gutta’s name, with the badminton star returning most of their cheers with waves. And all four of them have been born and brought up in Mumbai. The loudest in the house though, was Tinaikar’s friend Jainish Jain. When a sudden silence would descend on the stadium, Jain’s voice was always on hand to pierce it. “Come on Jwala!” he screamed, maybe a hundred times – and it didn’t matter if the rest of the public turned towards him and smiled apologetically as Delhi were getting hammered on court. “I’ve mainly come to see Lee Chong Wei because he’s world No 1 but that doesn’t mean I can’t cheer for Jwala. I really like her. It doesn’t matter if she plays for Delhi.” said Jain, who is pursuing a degree in engineering. For IBL fans, it’s probably too early to form strong feelings for a particular team. Even in cricket’s most glamorous league – the Indian Premier League – fans tend to support more than one team, especially if you were from a city that didn’t have a franchise. You’d just want your favourite player to win – and IBL fans find themselves in the same position. “I think it takes a few years to really start supporting a team with all your heart,” Jain said. Right now, the crowd pullers are the players. We come to see Saina, Lee and Gutta. We don’t come to see Mumbai Masters or Delhi Smashers." However, Balu Iyer feels differently. “Some may scream for other players, but if he’s a Mumbaikar he’ll support Mumbai. If you ask me, 70 per cent of the people in the stadium are for Mumbai Masters right now,” he said, before adding that he himself didn’t care who won. “I’ve come to enjoy the game.” Iyer’s calculation of a 70-30 support was somewhat off the mark if you witnessed the next two matches. Sai Praneeth of Delhi was facing Germany’s Marc Zwiebler, and this time, there was only one man the crowd wanted to see win. Praneeth took to the court with Delhi trailing 1-2, and had the first game in the bag before losing the second. The third game was a close contest, with the Indian losing to the world No 12 9-11, but there was only one name on everyone’s lips during the entire encounter – Sai. And if that wasn’t enough, even Prajakta Sawant got her fair share of love from the 1500-odd spectators. The 20-year-old is a Mumbai girl representing Delhi and she may have lost to the pair of Chong Wei and Tine Baun, but will go into the next match knowing that the people in her city care about her. The tricky thing with badminton is that it is an individual game masquerading as a team game. Allegiances therefore may take longer to establish and franchises will have to deliberately try hard to create a strong fan following, much as the IPL teams are doing. In a short season - the IBL lasts three weeks this is easier said than done. The good news is the fans will always follow the stars. The Bengalis who cheered for Sourav Ganguly’s Pune Warriors when he led them at Eden Gardens know this all too well.