There stands Shivam Dube, tall, lanky but muscle-y, with a long SS bat and a slightly awkward facial expression as he takes his front-foot open stance to face the upcoming delivery. It's not a bad one, but bang goes Dube. Thanks to power, timing and clarity of mind, he deposits the ball six rows into the stand over the deep midwicket fielder. In nine matches, the middle-order batter for CSK has scored at an average of 58.33 and strike rate of 172.41.
Near Chennai, in the snazzy orange jersey of Hyderabad, Heinrich Klaasen, Abhisek Sharma and Travis Head sweating in the sweltering heat are making bowlers sweat more as they dispatch deliveries to and over the boundaries with a kind of careless assault rarely seen before. Up north in the pink city, Sanju Samson is doing the same thing, but more elegantly, often dispatching his sixes over cover (something most batters can only dream of). Closer home, Sunil Narine seems to have perfected his bat swing to time the ball sweetly. Astonishing skill, but yet the dominant conversation is “The pitches are roads”, “Save the bowlers” and “This is too much” (I have said these things myself).
Sunil Narine seems to have perfected his bat swing to time the ball sweetly Amit Datta
The outcome of this fiesta of big hitting is big emotion — screaming in the stadiums and living rooms, commentary rising to a crescendo match after match as records and T20 conventions go tumbling. But the thing is, although M.S. Dhoni walking out to bat at Chepauk is still the biggest source of decibel spike in cricket, spectators are loving it that others, too, are smashing it to all parts of the ground. Why?
Why crowds love it
To understand why, we need to dive into social psychology and take a quick look at ‘crowd behaviour’. Gustave Le Bon, an early social scientist outlined how crowds (like the one at the Eden Gardens) exist in three stages. Firstly, submergence, where individuals lose their individual self, personal accountability and join into the larger crowd. Something that happens quite literally, as you enter the stadium and walk up steps. Second, contagion, which is how individuals start to unquestioningly follow the dominant emotions and ideas. Ever participated in a ‘Mexican wave’ in a stadium or danced to the DJ’s music with thousands of others?. Finally, suggestion, where all ideas of what the crowd does is drawn from a shared unconscious ideology as people who comprise the crowd are susceptible to any passing emotion. In stadiums, this is fundamentally linked to what is happening on the field of play.
Audiences in cricket have always liked ‘action’. It is why they watch the sport. It is what prompted the initial idea of limited overs cricket in the ’70s and since then has given birth to T20, and now, even the T10 formats. But action does not only mean big sixes. Ask any cricket fan if they enjoy a toe-crushing yorker or a beautiful outswinger that takes the edge, and they will nod and smile at you. Spectators like any form of action that makes them aspire to repeat it, even if they know deep down that they are not skilled enough.
Submergence is a crowd behaviour where individuals lose their individual self, personal accountability and join into the larger Amit Datta
The average cricketer cannot hit 70m+ sixes with apparent ease. They cannot ramp an inswinging 130 kmph yorker over third man. In most cases, batters would break their wrist if they try to do what Suryakumar Yadav does. For the crowd in the stadium and the audience before TV, every big six, acrobatic fielding or beautiful delivery is emotional satisfaction. It is a signal that a group of 22 players (24 with impact players) is doing incredible things in front of them. This is what creates the awe and satisfaction that allows people en masse — the entire crowd — to be swept up in hysteria.
‘Surely… that’s … impossible?’
Make no mistake, what we are seeing in IPL 2024 is new territory. The data says so — five out of the six biggest totals in IPL history have been scored this season. But it is one of cricket’s most enduring miracles how bowlers always find ways to adapt. What will also endure is how bowlers stand with hands on hip with the exasperated look that only one too many boundaries can bring about.
It is one of cricket’s most enduring miracles how bowlers always find ways to adapt Amit Datta
Every time the boundaries flow like a torrent, what also creeps into our mind is the desire to see the limits of possibility being extended. It starts with, “Surely not?”, transforms into, “Maybe?” and finally, “I can’t believe it!”. More than we like big sixes and big scores, we like this feeling. The feeling that we were there, witnessing history being rewritten. After all, who can not like that sense of belonging. “I was there when…” is after all a status symbol. We acquire it if we are lucky and sportspersons have one of those “impossible” days.
Dr Sahen Gupta is a Kolkata-born, India- and UK-based psychologist who divides his time between mental health support and high-performance coaching. As the founder of Discovery Sport & Performance Lab, he works not only with Olympians and other top-level sportspersons, but also with CEOs and other professionals striving for excellence. Dr Gupta’s mission is to simplify complexities of the mind into actionable and simple ‘doables’ that allow individuals to be mentally fit.
