Disclaimer: Might be controversial. I'm writing this to make myself (and anyone who feels the same about those CSK 'fans' who cheer at Jaddu's wicket) feel better. Read at your own risk, because I am in no mood to explain my point of view to people crying in the comments.

"Jad?"

"Yes, Jinks?"

"Do you want to go for a walk?"

"No."

"Do you want to play Mastermind?"

"No."

"Do you want coffee?"

"No."

"Will you stop saying no?"

"No."

Jinks really wished his friend would take the hint sometimes.

"Do you want to talk?"

"Not really," said Jaddu.

What happened was this: Mahi bhai had scolded Jaddu on the field. Quite a common occurrence. Jaddu played the fool. Mahi bhai scolded. Jaddu pretended to be remorseful. Mahi bhai forgave him. Jaddu returned to playing the fool.

Today, the cameras had caught it.

And the media and public had pounced upon it.

'MS-Jadeja rift.' 'Jadeja not pleased with MS's words.'

The usual crap.

And Jaddu had found out about it through an unwitting joking comment of Deepak's. He'd reacted with a laugh. But Jinks had seen the slight drop of his shoulders. And thus he had made a beeline for his room after dinner.

"Jaddu," persisted Jinks now. "You're not seriously letting rumours of all things bother you. Surely you've thought Virat an idiot more than once for how he tends to take rumours and the media seriously. Surely you are not being an idiot consciously."

"They said I don't respect Mahi bhai," said Jaddu.

"Yeah, so? Does that mean you actually don't respect Mahi bhai?"

"No," said Jaddu.

"So?"

"It's--it has suddenly become a burden, playing for CSK. I wish last year--that captaincy stuff--I wish that didn't happen, Jinks."

Jinks sat down beside him.

"I wish the same. However, that's in the past. Forget it, Jad."

"I can't forget it. CSK hates me. My--my team hates me."

"Your team does not hate you--"

"My team's fans do--"

"Because they made a rift rumour about you and Mahi bhai?"

"And you know," said Jaddu, in a subdued sort of voice. "They wait for my wicket and all. Not that it's surprising, the way I've batted--"

"It would make anyone bat badly if your own supposed fans yell at you to get out," said Jinks, suddenly fierce. "And it has got nothing to do with your batting, you know. The ones who wait for your wicket, they don't care for CSK. They would want you to get out even if you were on 99 off 50. They shout at Shivam to get out, too. All they want is to see Mahi bhai bat. Which would be fine, if they did not claim to be the team's supporters."

Jaddu tried to get his head round that statement.

"It was the same with Sachin sir, remember?" said Jinks. "People used to leave the stadium when he got out. They didn't care about the sport, or the team. They just cared about Sachin sir, forgetting cricket is a team sport."

"Really? How d'you know?" asked Jaddu.

"How do you not know?" asked Jinks. "They are a separate class of people. So are these ones who cheer for your wicket so that Mahi bhai can come and bat. Jesus Christ."

"And I despise them," a voice came from the doorway.

Jinks and Jaddu jumped out of their skin and straightened up, innocent as schoolboys.

"Despise who, Mahi bhai?" asked Jinks, still more innocently.

"The ones who degrade our beautiful team sport to a crappy individual sport, apparently," said Mahi bhai smoothly, coming to sit beside them. "I love CSK and I love its fans. However, I do not love the people who turn up in the yellow jersey, claiming to be CSK fans, whilst they shout for you and Shivam to get out, Jad, so that I can come to bat. I despise them."

"You--do?" Jaddu's eyes widened. "But they are your biggest fans, Mahi bhai."

"My biggest fans?" Mahi bhai's eyebrows flew up. "My biggest fans are the ones who care for the Indian team or for CSK, because those are my teams, and I play a team sport. These people, apparently, care for neither. Anyone who cares for CSK cannot shout for your wicket, Jaddu. Anyone with an ounce of loyalty towards CSK knows what you have done for them over all these years--they would never dishonour you for their own selfish wish of watching me bat."

"They don't deserve to wear the team jersey at all, isn't it, Mahi bhai?" said Jinks promptly.

"Of course," said Mahi bhai. "It's a free country, so people do plenty of things they don't deserve to, though. It's a free country, so they call themselves CSK fans. It's a free country, so I despise them. And so should you both."

"I do," said Jinks. "Don't you, Jad?"

Jaddu looked all confused.

"Don't think so much," said Mahi bhai, hiding a smile. "Just say you do despise them, because you'll find you actually do."

"Um," said Jaddu. "Yeah, I despise them."

Jinks hid a smile, too.

"And, er, Mahi bhai--" Jaddu hesitated. "You see, some people, er, caught you scolding me after the last match, so they, er--"

"Creepy," said Mahi bhai in an almost-inaudible tone.

"What's creepy?" asked Jaddu nervously.

"Two things," said Mahi. "One, hearing you stammer. Two, those people with an eye always out for fake drama. I assume they are going on about, um, rifts?"

"Yes," said Jinks in a bored voice.

"Thought so," said Mahi, also in a bored voice.

"It's awful," protested Jaddu, driven to defend himself, even as a part of him thought that he should have been maniacally laughing by now to show the rumours didn't bother him. Somehow, it was hard to pretend in front of these two.

"Yeah, yeah," said Jinks. "There have been around half a dozen bouts of people crying bloody murder about Rohit-Virat rifts--"

"Language, Jinks!" scolded Mahi bhai.

Jinks fell silent, sheepish.

"But never with Mahi bhai," Jaddu insisted. "No one has ever had rift rumours with Mahi bhai!"

"Virat has had, actually," said Mahi in a contemplative tone. "Your point, Jad?"

Jaddu averted his eyes from his big brother's.

"I wonder--" said Jaddu in a very quiet voice. "I wonder if I have ever done anything to make the public think I don't--I don't respect you, Mahi bhai."

Jinks looked at Mahi bhai over Jaddu's head, nodded, and slipped out of the room.

"Ah," said Mahi. "The feet-touching sort of respect, d'you mean? Cause you never bowed your head in front of me on the field, like Kuliya and Deepak do."

Jaddu looked up.

"Or perhaps you mean the singing-praises sort of respect?" continued Mahi. "Cause you never sung my praises in press conferences like Virat and Hardik do, either."

Jaddu did not know what to say, or what to think. Was Mahi bhai annoyed?

"Or any other external, public show of respect? How can you expect that from master prankster Sir Ravindra Jadeja who goofs around on the field and takes extreme, almost unconscious, care to hide himself under a stone armour?"

Jaddu blinked, seriously confused by now.

"Because if you mean the internal kind of respect and love, the public doesn't know that, you see," said Mahi. "But I know it. I know how much you respect and love me, and you know how much I respect and love you, too. I think that's enough, don't you?"

"I--" Jaddu hesitated, and fell silent.

"What do they know about us, really, Jad?" said Mahi bhai. "They watch us on the field, listen to press conferences, and they are hungry rumour mongers and you know negativity makes for the spiciest stories. So they make up horrible stories. It makes the journalists' careers. It adds interest to the add of jobless people. Why should we deny them that joy, eh?"

"I hate the media," said Jaddu

"Name one celebrity who doesn't."

Jaddu thought for a while.

"It was a rhetorical question, Jad," said Mahi bhai patiently.

A sudden, delighted laugh escaped Jaddu. Mahi's heart soared, though he took care to hide it.

"And I despise people who claim to support teams and instead act anti-team in the stadium," said Jaddu firmly.

"Again, name one team sportsperson who doesn't."

Jaddu nodded. "That was also a rhetorical question."

This time it was Mahi who laughed and pulled Jaddu into a hug.

"And you know who I despise the most of all, Jad?" he asked.

"Who?"

"The ones who dare to hurt my kiddos. Those are the ones I despise the most of all."