I was six when the 19-year-old Monica Seles was stabbed at Hamburg in 1993. I
was too young, naive, and innocent to understand the meaning of the word
"jealousy," which I began to understand and comprehend fully as I grew up over
the years.

Sidelining normal life and reverting back to the sports pages, the field is rife
with fans who are jealous, not to mention some of the rivals who resort to
crudeness in their jealousy-induced fervour.

I don't follow much of any other sport except cricket and tennis, though it
doesn't take the mind of a genius to garner that every sport across the world
will be agog and awash with such blatantness...

Monica Seles spent 28 months of her life "in absentia" from the sport thanks to
Herr Gunther Parche, who, in his inspired wake, decided to give Steffi Graf a
chance to climb back to the rankings; ah! As if Steffi had personally hired
goons to tug her rival out of her way.

Did it make him famous? Was he awarded the highest order of bravery because of
his actions? No, but he sowed a seed of unwanted animosity, and demonstrated the
fanaticism that would have been building and building in the deepest recess of
his deranged mind!

Fast-forward to the ninth year of the new millennium; we have two players in the
world of men's tennis—both of whom have fans who trade crossfires back and forth
like these people trade baseline rallies.

I don't need to even spell their names; they're implied by now, aren't they?
They are the Swiss and the Spaniard, whose fanatical fans have literally drawn
the battle line between them.

Rafa gets injured, and hardcore Federer fans say, "He is faking it!"

Someone please clarify, what would have been Rafa's advantage if he would have
been faking it? The poor guy not only lost a chance to defend his title but also
his highly slogged-for World No. 1 status.

Now, on the other hand, Federer won the French Open and the Wimbledon, and
tongues have started wagging that Federer won because Rafa wasn't there.

Outrageous, just because Rafa added spice to the existing Federer persona, it
doesn't mean Federer can and will win only if Rafa isn't there. It's an insult
in fact to Federer's credibility as a tennis player!

In cricket, we have Sachin Tendulkar, whose name gets tossed up every now and
then. For those who don't know Sachin Tendulkar, he was and still is what Roger
Federer is to tennis, that's the highest order of compliment that his name
merits.

When Tendulkar was diagnosed with tennis elbow injury a few years earlier, his
haters started spreading the propaganda that he was faking it. It was
surprising, because the guy has been living and breathing cricket for the past
20 years of his life.

Still, that was jealousy, because Sachin was...well, Sachin, and no one could
compare and level on par with him. So muck his name, for all we care!

Also, there was the rivalry between the Indian and Pakistani cricket teams of
the '90s. They used to hate each other, period! Rivalry was an understatement
for what transpired between these two teams; any chance of sledging and slurring
each other, they never used to let go. Jealousy, again...politically inspired
and motivated!

Instances are many. One could go on and on about such outlandish behaviour.
Jealousy inspires frustration which in turn leads to consequences which makes
one shudder; does guilt ever feature in such a scenario?

Maybe it does in some corner, but then one does need to have a conscience, and
scruples to heed to such "feelings." Given the mind state of such fans, it's
like their hearts have been frozen, without any possibility of getting thawed!