The strange nature of online debates related to Cricket as seen through the eyes of a self proclaimed Neutral observer.

[ This piece was written on Wednesday, the 20th of February'2008. It reflects my thoughts on the strange nature of online debates in general and those related to cricket in particular. What brought about these thoughts was, infact, my own involvement in one such rather heated debate with a one time close online friend of mine. Ironic ? You bet..]


It's been over one and a half year since I've joined the addictive world of cricket related communities in the domains of the most popular social networking site of our times-Orkut. In this span of nearly 18 months or so, I've observed quite a lot of interesting facets about online acquaintances but what fascinates me the most is the nature of debates related to the game.

What I've observed regarding the nature of cricketing debates during my stay in various cricket communities spread across orkut is that no one..absolutely NO ONE ( & that includes your's truly as well ) seems to be interested in any kind of objectivity at all. All that the involved individuals ( or for that matter, parties ) focus upon is the effective voicing of their personal opinion regarding the topic of debate at hand.

It should be noted here that I have deliberately used the word- DEBATE -instead of the word- DISCUSSION - even though, ironically, majority of this supposedly intellectual jargon gets passed off as "Discussion" only.

There's a very distinct difference between a "debate" and a "discussion". A "discussion" is a dialogue between two individuals or parties wherein both the parties needn't necessarily be at odds with each other but are trying to reach a conclusion regarding some issue ; together.

While a debate, on the other hand, is a dialogue between two individuals or parties wherein the involved units have already taken a stance upon some issue and are now interested only in the establishment of their personal stance regarding that issue as THE ultimate truth, anyhow.

And debate is what we keep witnessing every other day in any & every cricketing community anywhere and everywhere in the virtual world.

Now, coming to debate, I'd like to make it clear at the very onset here that I don't have anything personal against it. Hell, I've myself been part of some very lively ( & if I must add, heated ) ones at that. I am in total agreement with the notion that a healthy debate is a pretty stimulating and arrestive form of mental exercise and can be a very creative time-pass. But the basic drawback of a debate, in my opinion, is that the probability of it staying "healthy" till it reaches it's climax is extremely low. The involved individuals tend to get sucked into it to such an extent that they cease to view other person's opinion in it's objectivity. Instead, they begin taking even clearly impersonal comments, personally. And this happening is the sureshot recipe of disaster. As soon as this starts to happen, the debate ceases to be a healthy one, loses it's objectivity and is eventually turned into a nasty verbal tussle between the two involved parties with a distinctly apparent personal angle.

Unlike a discussion, a debate is a competitive exercise to prove one's intellectual superiority over one's counterpart. And like most of the competitions( "love" and "war" being the prominent ones amongst them ), everything is considered fair in the quest of an illusion victory. The only rule that's followed by both parties is - Everything goes. From sarcasm which is deliberately in bad taste, to personal taunts, to jibes about the mental level, to one's upbringing & background & what not.

And the most amazing part of it all is that seemingly cultured, civil, literate, knowledgeable, well mannered and learned people tend to fall prey to this tremendously alluring trap of debate more often than the not so learned & cultured ones. Perhaps it's their high level of intellect only which makes them intolerant and dare I say, insecure when faced with a strong counterview to their opinion.

The situation becomes even funnier when one such highly knowledgeable person finds himself squaring off against one of his own tribe i.e. another highly knowledgeable scholar of the game.
The fireworks that emanate then from such a titanic clash is something which is to be seen to be believed !

One of the intrinsic characteristics of a debate is that it is capable of turning friends into foes and vice versa. Such is the might of one's attachment with one's own ego that even impersonal countering is viewed as an attempt to encroach upon one's ego. And the response to such an attempt is somewhat similar to the anti-encroachment drive, i.e full fledged attack to destroy any traces of that encroachment. Sample this

Every tom, dick and harry in such cricket communities claims himself/herself to be a great follower of the game- Cricket. But strangely enough, very few seem to imbibe the sportsman spirit associated with this great game. A spirit to forgive and forget, a spirit to let bygones be bygones, a spirit which preaches one to be mature enough to distinguish between on-field tussles and off-field bonhomie & most importantly - a spirit which preaches that at the end of the day, it's just a game.


Why can't we, just like the cricketers we so love and admire, keep all the bitterness that might have developed as a result of a heated debate, aside, separate from our personal equations or the rapport that we share with each other off the community ? What's so bloody difficult in that ? All it requires is a bit of maturity and level headedness on one's part.

But then...expecting those two virtues from a cricket fanatic is, perhaps, asking for too much.