Spinning out of control : Harbhajan Singh, postcolonial cricket celebrity and the "revenge narrative"

In order to fall, sport heroes must first, of course, rise. But this is not alwnys a simple matter of agreement on ascent and descent. What in the eyes of some actors and spectators may be an unequivocal case of disgrace, others may see as triumph, or at least extenuating circumstances bordering on justification. It is important then, as in all cases of interpretation and judgment, to take into account the conditions of transgression and the potentially conflicting readings of them. It is also crucial to acknowledge that movements in levels of esteem are not necessarily inexorable-the idea of redemption, for example, is inscribed into the natural history of the media sport scandal (Rowe, 1994; 1997). This is a process that can be found not only at the level of individual subjects, but also in the wider social sphere. For example, Stanley Cohen (1973), in his renowned, influential work, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, described how social problems (such as subcultural violence or drug taking) may be "amplified" by societal responses (articulated through the media, police, judiciary, politicians, and various "moral entrepreneurs") that result in a "moral panic" in a manner that creates "folk devils" who must be dealt with in the interests of social order (see also Critcher, 2003; Thompson, 1998). In most cases, Cohen noted (pp. 202-203), moral panics run out of steam (crises cannot continuously escalate) and folk devils become less threatening with time and maturation, resulting in what he called a process of "de-amplification" (although one, presumably, that is potentially subject to "re-amplification").