A lady’s wail pierces the slim, winding lane on the finish of which sit two homes separated solely by a skinny wall. The entrance door of 1 shack is bolted. Contained in the adjoining house, a younger man – head shaven, eyes moist and legs folded – sits on the ground in silence. In a room, village elders console his weeping mom.
It’s Padwa, the primary day of the New Yr, however the lady can’t collect herself to neglect the previous and stay up for a brand new starting. Inside her modest house, and on the streets exterior, they’re nonetheless mourning the passing of Bandopant Tibile. The 65-year-old died on March 30 – two days after he was significantly injured in a battle together with his neighbour, 70-year-old Balwant Jhanjge, whereas watching an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on TV from their small Maharashtra village.
Tibile’s son Vijay fights again tears as he says: “They had been watching a match. The argument broke out due to an incident in a match. The most important lesson is to not get too concerned emotionally in cricket. When will we deal with sport as sport?”
Tibile’s son Vijay (2nd proper) with village elders together with police patil ragi jadhav (left) and sarpanch Sangram Bhapkar (second left)
It’s a query many have been asking recently.
For the reason that begin of this IPL season, social media has witnessed poisonous battles between followers of Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma, the brand new Mumbai Indians captain vs his predecessor. Rivalry between followers of various groups at all times existed, however animosity between these idolising particular person cricketers having fun with cult following is a latest pattern in Indian cricket.
In a much-debated switch, Pandya had moved to MI from Gujarat Titans earlier than the present season. This got here inside days of the Rohit-led Indian workforce ending runners-up within the 2023 ICC World Cup. Pandya was booed throughout his first house sport at Wankhede Stadium, and policemen in civil garments had been posted close to the dugout the place he sat together with his teammates.
It was throughout MI’s earlier sport, an away outing in Hyderabad, that the aged farmer was killed for merely saying ‘Mumbai Indians will lose’. This was the true world, miles away from the glittering IPL stadiums.
The tragedy has surprised Hanmantwadi, a village of some thousand on the outskirts of Kolhapur, and left its inhabitants speechless. “It’s a modest village with people who find themselves farmers with modest lands and meagre earnings. We’re far-off from the hustle of massive cities. It’s an uncomplicated, peaceable life,” says Sangram Bhapkar, the sarpanch.
The village itself is behind past and it’s an ordeal simply to achieve right here – half a day from Mumbai or Pune, the 2 nearest main cities, to get to Kolhapur adopted by one other lengthy journey to Hanmantwadi, the place autos are sometimes reluctant to journey due to the space and buses are rare.
A tribute poster close to his house.
The area’s sporting pursuits, too, are totally different from most of India. Whereas cricket stays the undisputed primary in most components of the nation, right here, soccer can rival it in recognition and follow. On the face of it, Hanmantwadi – or Kolhapur usually – doesn’t have pores and skin within the IPL sport. There isn’t any workforce representing the area nor has a participant from right here made it that far.
But, such is the IPL’s lure that it has everybody hooked. Simply final week, a fruit vendor exterior Shahu Market Yard gained the jackpot of Rs 1 crore in a fantasy sport.
Ravi Jadhav, the police patil, says: “Cricket has at all times been fashionable however in the previous few years, IPL insanity has reached unimaginable ranges. Individuals establish themselves as Mumbai Indians or Chennai diehards. Individuals put it as their standing messages. Cricket is one half however the IPL khunnas (hatred) is a brand new factor.”
Jadhav lives just a few blocks away from the homes of the sufferer, Tibile, and the accused, Jhanjge.
Till a fortnight in the past, he says, the 2 neighbours lived as neighbours usually do – caring and peaceable for essentially the most half, nosy and nagging typically. Tibile, the village residents say, was lively socially and was the primary to assist anybody in want. Jhanjge, they are saying, was somewhat “whimsical”, nevertheless it was all “minor”.
As they ceaselessly did, on March 27, Tibile and Jhanjge met at a pal’s house throughout the road to look at IPL. They had been joined by half a dozen others, who gathered round a tiny, antiquated field tv set to look at the MI-SRH face-off.
It was a high-scoring match, Hyderabad would set Mumbai a humongous goal of 278. Mumbai made a brisk begin, however when Rohit Sharma received dismissed, Tibile taunted Jhanjge, a die-hard Mumbai Indians fan. “After the wicket, Tibile turned to Jhanjge and stated, “Oh, Rohit is out, now Mumbai will lose!” recollects Bhapkar. “That triggered Jhanjge and the duo received concerned in a heated argument.”
What began as banter became a full-fledged bashing of Tibile, who was thrashed with sticks. Some native residents tried to intervene, however out of nowhere, Jhanjge’s nephew Sagar emerged and landed a blow with a stick on the again of Tibile’s head.
Tibile collapsed on the door of his home and was rushed to a close-by hospital. Two days later, he was declared useless. “There was no different angle to their battle. No prior enmity, no fuss over the rest. Cricket is the explanation for what occurred. However the incident was simply an accident,” sarpanch Bhapkar says.
Jhanjge and his nephew have been booked below Part 302 (homicide) of the Indian Penal Code. The 2 households received collectively and ensured issues didn’t spiral uncontrolled throughout the village.
It has left everybody, together with the police, shocked. “We aren’t speaking about children. It’s two aged individuals who received concerned in a battle that led to this tragic incident over a cricket match,” says Inspector Kishor Shinde of Karveer police station.
Subsequently, the police held a gathering, Shinde says, and determined to start out an consciousness programme among the many villagers. “How a lot ought to one be obsessed a couple of explicit factor? There must be a restrict. You’ll be able to’t develop enmity in direction of others due to it. Individuals get depressed too if their workforce loses, as if somebody has died. How can it’s addressed? Ought to the BCCI be answerable for educating the followers? Or the federal government?”
Shinde provides: “Earlier, leisure used to return within the type of motion pictures that we noticed in cinema halls. It was a neighborhood affair. The IPL now’s an analogous factor. Watching matches is a neighborhood occasion however we should not neglect that it’s simply leisure. We should deal with it like that.”