Why Sports?

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”, said the great philosopher Plato. And, this will remain true as long as the existence. Let’s ponder on why we need sports/play. I believe there are two chief reasons for this.

1. “Sports is like a war without the killing.”

Humans are nothing but an assembly of different kinds of energies. This includes positive & negative energies. The positive energies are our enthusiasm, hope, speech, emotions, sophistication, etc. And we cannot live without them even for a moment. The negative energies are the leftovers of our evolution from being an animal to a human being. These raw energies make one behave like an animal.
War is one of the results of this animal instinct or negative energy.

When we fight, attack, defend, counter attack, escape, save, run, jump, deceive, catch, hit, throw or anything that is considered wild or an offence in the civilized world, our negative energies are at work. All this and other characteristics like these are common between animals & us. And perhaps that is the reason we have called them negative side of our energies. That is why these characteristics are uncalled for in the modern world. They are against the grain of civilization. But a channel is needed to divert or convert these negative energies to our advantage. Hence, SPORTS. This is the first reason.

Let me put across the logic behind this. Where else we find these words appearing. It’s in sports/play. Say, for example in cricket we get this terminology of ‘attack’, ‘defend’, ‘run’, ‘save’, ‘catch’, ‘throw’, ‘hit’ ‘deceive’ etc. And these words not only form the sporting terminology, but also eventually decide how superior you are. These are precisely the characteristics needed to be a winner in sports. All these comprise of sports skill set. You do not see this skill set being appreciated often in your work life, do you? In normal life, you get punished for attacking, hitting, throwing, catching or deceiving. But, you are applauded when this skill set is used in sports. You are felicitated for this. You are a WINNER.

2. “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

Now that we have dealt with the origin of sports, as the first reason, let us focus on the merits of sports as the second reason. The main thing that any game does is giving level playing field i.e. equality to the competitors. This is the basis of humanity. In this progressively uneven & biased ocean of world, sports remain the only tiny islands of equality.

Another thing that it does is, inspire. One Kapil Dev from a small village in Haryana, just listening to the radio commentary on cricket got inspired to be a cricketer. And not many know that the first test match that Kapil played was also the first ever international test match he saw. This is the kind of aspirational value that sports have.

Apart from this, sports are the biggest uniting factor across cadre, cast, community, & country. People have used sports talk to break the ice between strangers. They kindle the kind of passion & unity among the masses that is atypical to soldiers of a nation. Even if it is sometimes momentary, it can always spark such emotions.

And off course, sports make sure that the society is physically fit & healthy. It is a the easiest way of increasing your life’s quality & quantity.

Finally to sign it off, that pretty old & famous Indian one liner,
“Padhoge, likhoge hoge kharaab,kheloge kudoge banoge nawaab.

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