What is a group?

A group is an organised system of two or more people who interact and are interdependent, with common motives, set roles and norms.

Characteristics of a group:

• members see themselves as belonging to it;
• they share motives and goals;
• what one member does affects the others (interdependence): if a fielder drops a catch, the whole cricket team suffers;
• there is a structure: roles and norms, which tell members how they are expected to behave.

Not every collection of people is a group:

• A crowd gathers by chance, like people collecting at an accident site. It has no structure, no roles, and no feeling of belonging. Crowd behaviour can be irrational, because individuals feel anonymous.
• An audience gathers for a purpose (a film, a match) but is usually passive. Spectators at a match are an audience, not a group: they have no defined roles and do not depend on each other. An audience can sometimes turn into a mob: a crowd marked by homogeneity (everyone thinking alike) and impulsivity, acting violently.

A team is a special kind of group:

• members have complementary skills, each contributing something different;
• mutual accountability: all are responsible for the result;
• positive synergy: the team achieves more together than members could alone.

So a cricket team is a group, and even a team, but its spectators are not: what makes a group is interdependence.