New Delhi, April 26: Andre Agassi wept unabashedly through his Goldilocks phase and later in his bald avatar, in victory and defeat. Maradona, Tiger Woods and even Kapil Dev have allowed their eyes to well up, revealing their emotions in public.

But none of them burst into tears after being slapped by an opponent.

S. Sreesanth’s unchecked emotions — after the slap by Harbhajan Singh last evening — may cause him to be seen as a sissy, at least temporarily, clinical psychologists say. But his tears are unlikely to make him any less popular.

“Tears may be interpreted as a sign of weakness, but his fans are unlikely to desert him,” said Prayojan Shastri, a Mumbai psychiatrist.

The sight of the fast bowler rubbing his cheeks, psychologists believe, may have served to remind the nation of something it seems to have forgotten: that cricketers — even the Indian Premier League gladiators — are human.

“It will remind the public that those viewed as superstars are as human (as the rest of us) with the same frailties,” said Varkha Chulani, consultant psychologist at the Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai. “It will make the public more accepting of (their) failures.”

Psychologists say that the images of Sreesanth needing to be consoled by fellow players and actress Preity Zinta — co-owner of his Kings XI Punjab team — will remain in public memory for a while. “He appeared to be crying like a child,” Shastri said.

Some cricket fans agreed. “It made him look like a cry baby,” said a scornful Sejal Kothari, a software engineer. But others said Sreesanth’s tears were understandable.

“It’s not wrong for men to cry. They are equally sensitive creatures. It also takes away from the taboo that only women cry,” said Simran Kudesia, who works with People for Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“He deserves a pat on the back for crying,” said a young homosexual writer in Delhi. “It must have taken a lot of courage.”

Maradona, whose Latin culture allows “expressiveness” to co-exist with machismo, had wept in the stadium after the 1990 World Cup defeat. Woods let the mask slip on the golf course after the death of his father, and Pete Sampras on court as his coach lay dying of cancer – becoming “more human” in fans’ eyes.

But the Haryanvi Kapil, who sobbed during a TV interview after match-fixing allegations by former team-mate Manoj Prabhakar, was derided for the “unmanly” behaviour by many embarrassed Indians and Pakistanis.

The psychiatrists said cultural upbringing influences how adults react to insults such as a slap.

“(King’s XI captain) Yuvraj’s reaction to the incident appears much more strident than Sreesanth’s,” Shastri said.

Yuvraj had made no secret of his anger at Harbhajan last night and the Punjab team lodged an official complaint today. Sreesanth, however, has tried to play down the incident by describing it a friendly spat and Harbhajan as his “elder brother”.

“Unfortunately, boys are raised to think that it’s not okay to cry. But (by respecting that taboo) they lose an emotional aspect of being human,” Chulani said.