Cricket Matches at South Africa - Essay Example

All the teams participating in these matches are from India though all the teams must have a compulsory 4 overseas players apart from the Indian players. So South Africans were fortunate enough to watch all world cricket superstars in action at South Africa along with their players also.The South African people's behavior towards these matches was indifferent at times. I have seen in one of the matches in which the South African fast bowler, probably one of the fastest in the world today Dale Steyn, who is playing for Royal Challengers, Bangalore, hit for a six by former Australian player Mathew Hayden who is playing for Chennai Super Kings.

Most of the South African spectators cheered for Hayden rather than Steyn on that occasion. On another occasion when Steyn uprooted the stumps of Hayden, they stood up and clapped for a long period in appreciation of his performances. We can call it a sporting gesture from the spectators, but really wondered me is that the same thing did not happen when earlier this year the Australians toured South Africa for some test matches. I think the 20-20 cricket match has changed the people's attitude drastically.

They are on a global mood when they are witnessing global players together playing for a team in front of them. Nationalism may not have many roles in such sports matches since people are in a different mood. On the other hand, when the test matches taking place between two teams, all the players belonging to two different countries and hence most of the spectators cheer for their own country alone. In another incident, when Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar hit a six of former Australian spin wizard Shane Warne, the South African spectators enjoyed it for a long period along with a few Indian spectators present.

Also, I have seen some of the South African spectators dressed in the Jerseys of some of their beloved teams. Sports have no religion or region. At times the spectators will be more patriotic in their approach while at some other times their moods will be integrated into a global nature. In short social psychology is unpredictable at times. People's moods can vary depending on the nature of the incident in which they interact. In the above example, since test matches are limited to players of only two countries, mostly the social mood will be more oriented towards patriotism.

On the other hand, since the 20- 20 matches include players from different countries, the social mood will be integrated into a universal proposition.