Calcutta, April 14: The fatal attack on a teenaged club cricketer in Howrah may have a thread linking it to the mob rage that often follows an Indian defeat, psychologists believe.

“People, even children, don’t treat the game as just a game any more,” city psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram said.

Class XI boy Ram Patra, 17, certainly didn’t when he repeatedly hit opposition player Rabin Ash on his head with a stump during a club game in Howrah yesterday afternoon. Rabin, also 17, died in hospital today.

Jai Ranjan cited the win-at-any-cost aggression on display in international matches that fans watch every day.

“They (the young) get influenced by it to such an extent that they carry this attitude to the ground even when they are playing a friendly.”

The hype around the idea that victory is the “only thing” in sport, and that nice people end up as what is contemptuously termed “second best”, too, shapes their attitude. The failure to accept defeat is reflected in the burning of cricketers’ effigies and stoning of their houses after a World Cup loss.

But some people react more strongly than others. The fierce competition of the sports arena awakens a latent behavioural disorder in them, driving them towards uncontrollable rage.

“It’s known as ‘impulse control disorder’ (ICD). Those who have it cannot control their impulses. But with proper treatment, they can be taught to have that control,” said Ranadip Ranjan Ghosh, general secretary of the Indian Psychiatric Society.

Unfortunately, Ghosh said, when someone starts betraying a violent streak, those around him seldom think of seeking medical help.

Ram’s family, though, said the boy had never exhibited ultra-aggressive behaviour.

Other than personality disorders, the social environment, too, can encourage violence, Ghosh said.

“The parents may be under stress and may take to beating their children as an easy way to relieve their frustration. These beatings teach the children that violence is the way to settle every dispute, small or big,” he said.

“Exposure to violence through television and other media helps that belief take root in their minds.”

The increasingly “cut-throat” competition of modern life does the rest, Jai Ranjan added.

“Today’s society expects you to be nothing less than the best. This puts people, especially children, under tremendous stress. That’s why a simple game of cricket can take on the proportions of a war.”