‘Which team are you backing?’asked my cousin who is closely following the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019. Despite having been following cricket matches since my teenage years,I replied, ‘I don’t have any particular team that Isupport; I just love watching the game of every teamequally well.’My answer surprised my cousin, who is a big fan of the Australian cricket team,and he remained silent for a while.

Not only cricket but the whole sporting world has a huge fandom. Millions of fans follow their teamson the field, and billions of people do soin the media.In the case of Nepal, football has won a huge mass, but the fan following of the Nepali cricket team is not small either. National cricket players including the current captain, ParasKhadka, never forget to give credit to their fans whether they play athome or away. The presence of Nepali fans at theTribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, in particular, looks spectacular when our national team is playing against an international team.

But spectatorship is the most neglected topic in sports. According to Mike McNamee,professor of sports science at Swansea University, Wales,‘Spectators are indispensable, since without them the victory, which should be the only reward, would lose half of its power.’ According to academicians like McNamee, sports fans have been categorisedinto several types.

The first is the 'gambler'who followsa sportparticularly for betting. Some gamble on the overall results while others bet on a particular part of the game, such as which team scores first or which bowler delivers an illegal delivery at which moment of the game. This is known as spot fixing.The second type of fan, known as 'partisan',follows a particular club or a player. Such fansdon’t have logical reasons to follow the team. They create fan clubs, join them, chant club songs, and regularly meet likeminded people to discuss their club’s players and performances.

Another type of fan is the 'patriot' who strongly backs their national team. Examples of patriot fans can be seen whenever there is a cricket match between Pakistan and India. The tickets of a match between these two teams are almost always sold out early. These types of fans sometimeseven get involved in extreme behaviour like vandalism and hooliganism. The last type of fanis known as 'purist' who does not follow any team in particular, but enjoy the aesthetics or beauty of the game. They appreciate fair play and every aesthetic movement by the players. They simply enjoy the overall game.

The best example of this can be observed if you watch a cricket match between England and India at Lords Cricket Ground in the UK. One group of fans clearly cheers for the Indian cricket team. Another type of fan gives a round of applause whenever a player of any team shows a particular skill whether it is in fielding,bowling or batting.

Some claim that the world of sport is purely male dominated. This claim wasstrengthened at the recently concluded FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 in France. The final match was between the USand the Netherlands, the reigning European champions. The US won the World Cup convincingly. At the same time, the fans at the stadium chanted 'equal pay' for women players as reports show that women footballers are paid only 38 percent of what male players receive. It has also been reported that the US women players sued the US Soccer Federation for discrimination in other cases as well, such as medical care and sports facilities.Here, it shows that the fans are also in favour of social justice: They can stand againstsocial injustices through sports.This may be one of the best displays of sport aestheticism.

Different types of people enjoy sportsat different levels of the games. All types of fans exist in our sporting world. The followers widely follow their favourite games and players, so the world of sports must be ethical, and the players need to apply their integrity both in and off field for the betterment of sports as well as society because the followers closely watch and follow what their role models do. If the players are the heart of sports, the spectators are the blood of sports.If the players are obliged to follow the norms of sports, so do the followersto make the sporting world a better place to follow.

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