Patriotism v/s Love for the game

This is a topic which keeps popping up time and again. I admit I have had many an argument on this subject with many of my friends. Let's face it, most of us definitely want India to win whenever they play. If a player doesn't play well in a match or two, he gets the stick from everyone starting from the press to the common man on the street. It doesn't matter whether the other team was better or that it was a close match. If India loses, everyone is ready with the axe! There is the flip side to the coin of course. If a player hits a century, he is praised and can ride on that performance for quite a while. It doesn't matter what the conditions were, who the opponents were.

Well, this brings the larger question into the picture - Should the interest in the game be largely decided by one's interest in one's own country? Isn't there more to a sport than just winning all the matches? I was reading Ramachandra Guha's Article on "Changes in the game" featuring a couple of weeks back in The Magazine Section of The Hindu. Among the various issues, he makes a very valid point about the unruly behaviour of the crowds in stadiums all over India(with the notable exception of Chepauk) and the 1996 World Cup being a marker for this. We had to face the ignominy of a semi-final defeat to Sri Lanka as a result of crowd misbehaviour.
Since then there have many incidents of matches getting disrupted because of inexplicable crowd behaviour. Are we all getting to a stage where we want India to win at all costs? Is there anything wrong in appreciating an outstanding performance against India by an opposition player? Do we always need to blame our players for all the lost matches?

I am not trying to say that I am very objective when it comes to watching cricket. Ofcourse I love watching India play well and win. But to be honest I'd rather watch a close match like the one we lost against Pakistan in Chennai rather than a dull match with India winning by an innings or so.

Coming back to the point made about crowd misbehaviour, there is a case especially in India of people going to stadiums and letting the game proceed without unnecessary obstacles. This assumes even more importance with the upcoming Pakistan tour, given the rivalry between the teams and the huge stakes when we play Pakistan. I am just hoping that there is no repeat of the unfortunate incident which marred the third test at Calcutta when the match was finally played in front of empty galleries. It would be so much nicer to watch scenes similar to the one at Chennai last time around when the 'Pakis' were a given a 'lap of honour' after winning a very close encounter. Oh, I definitely hope it would be India who'd be winning such tests this time around. Yeah I know, there's the patriot in me talking again! So much for me writing about 'my love for the game'!!