‘Extra Cover’ is veteran journalist Pradeep Magazine’s column on the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.To be part of a multitude, bursting with energy and unbridled enthusiasm, screaming their lungs out as if in orgiastic ecstasy can be an uplifting experience, if you are one of them. It can be very scary if you are just an observer and not a participant.I had forgotten what it feels like watching India play a cricket match, that too in a World Cup. After the 2008 IPL opening match in Bangalore, I have limited my watching experience mostly to the television set. Watching India play Afghanistan at the Kotla (sorry Arun Jaitley) Stadium last Wednesday from the western stands was like reliving a past and getting reminded of the hypnotic power of the collective energy of a hysterical crowd.Indiaaa, Indiaa. Rooohiiit, Rooohiit. Buuumraaah, Buumraah. Thousands would join the call of one person, and the shout would spread across the entire stadium like wildfire, impossible to gauge where it began and where it will end. ‘Kohlii, Kohlii’ was the default mode of a young crowd who would be screaming these names, as if in a trance. Each time the oval-shaped stadium, packed to the rafters, would erupt, you could feel the tremors of an earthquake shaking the ground beneath you.They were treated to a sumptuous feast of batting skills, especially from Rohit Sharma, the majesty of whose batting and lightning footwork can only be observed and enjoyed while watching him bat live. In sheer elegance, decision-making and self-belief even the great Virat Kohli is no match to him. In this form, he seems unstoppable. No wonder he went on to decimate the Pakistani bowling and looks set for many encores this World Cup. That is what an Indian fan will hope for.If the overpowering noise of around 40,000 spectators is like a loud thunder drowning all voices supporting the rival team, one can well imagine what devastation a crowd of more than a lakh can have on the rival team. In Ahmedabad, this thunder must have sounded like a tornado, sweeping away all opposition voices, if any, around them.At Kotla, there were a couple of spectators holding the Afghanistan flag. They were best left ignored, even then one of them was heckled.At the magnificent Narendra Modi stadium, the crowds were treated to another delicious buffet of juicy morsels, with the very unorthodox Jasprit Bumrah displaying those impossible geometrical angles from his wrists and arms that are bemusing the best of batsmen across the cricketing world.Indian fans at the Narendra Modi stadium for India’s match against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup, October 14, 2023. Photo: Twitter/@cricketworldcupTo watch him feels like one is watching a robot who can twist and bend his body in his bowling action without losing pace, swing, seam and control. He does not snarl or scream. He does all this with calm and a benign smile, a very unusual trait in times when macho aggression is the lifeline of our and the world’s body politic. Bumrah could well be a welcome winning mascot for India in this World Cup, defying all those who seek energy from the display of visceral hatred of the other to succeed in life.Telling strikes from Bumrah and the very enthusiastic Mohammad Siraj at a time when the match seemed headed for a very combative duel just drained all the energy from the Pakistan team. It was as if an air-tight balloon was pricked by a sharp needle and collapsed in a heap.And then Rohit took over. This supremely gifted batsman and a very wise captain who not only capitalises on an opportunity on offer but also creates them through his aggressive captaincy, once again unleashed strokes of brute power, executed with finesse and elegance.I can imagine and even recreate in my mind’s eye what the thousands and thousands at the Ahmedabad stadium must have felt while watching India cruise to a victory, something that most Indians believed was destined to happen. The celebratory sloganeering, a laudable object of a sports fan, is not to be denied to a highly charged partisan crowd. Its collective voice in a stadium is like nuclear energy that can uplift your team but what is distasteful is to target the rival team with objectionable slogans. It is reprehensible to taunt them for their religion and boo them when their national anthem is played.Do they want the ‘Indiaaa, Indiaaa’ chant in the stadium to be associated with crass pettiness or generosity of spirit that respects the guests they invite home? It is not a difficult choice to make. Or is it?Pradeep Magazine is a cricket writer and the author of two books, Not Quite Cricket and the recently published Not Just Cricket, A Reporter’s Journey Through Modern India.