Why Sports?

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Plato.

And, this will remain true as long as human beings exist. Let’s ponder on why we need to play sports.

Humans are nothing but an assembly of different kinds of energies. This includes positive and negative energies. The positive energies are enthusiasm, hope, compassion, joy and any emotion or thought that is constructive in terms of bringing people together for a good purpose. And we cannot live without them even for a moment. The negative energies are the leftovers of our evolution from animal to human. These raw energies include hate, envy, anger, fear or any emotion or thought that divides humans or creates conflict. War is one of the results of this animal instinct or negative energy.

When we fight, attack, defend, run, jump, deceive, catch, hit, throw or anything that is considered aggressive or unacceptable in the civilized world, our negative energies are at work. These characteristics are not needed in the modern world because they are against the grain of civilization. But a channel is needed to divert or convert these negative energies to our advantage. Hence the need for sports.

Let me put across the logic behind this. Where would we find these words appearing as perfectly acceptable? In sports! These are precisely the characteristics needed to be a winner in sports. All these comprise a sports skill set. You do not see this skill set set being appreciated often in your work life, do you? In everyday life, you get punished or ostracized for attacking, hitting, throwing, catching or deceiving. But, you are applauded when this skill set is used in sports.

Now that we have dealt with the origins, let us focus on the merits of sports, The main thing is that any game does is give a level playing field to all — that is, it offers the same playing conditions to all competitors and they have to act on their skills, right there on the field to prove their worth. There are no secret support systems. In this progressively chaotic and corrupt world, sports remain the only tiny islands of equality.

Another thing that it does is to inspire many to great achievements. The legendary cricketer, Kapil Dev who hailed from a small village in Haryana was inspired to aim for excellence by just listening to the radio commentary of the cricket games. And not many know that the first test match that Kapil played was also the first ever international test match he actually saw. Think about the stories of other great sports achievers like Sir Vivian Richards, Tiger Woods or Roberto Baggio and you’ll understand the aspirational power exerted by the lure of sports.

Apart from this, sports are the biggest uniting factor among diverse people in every corner of the world. From soccer to cricket and basketball to golf, there is nothing like a competitive game to draw supporters from every background together with one purpose in mind — to cheer on their team to victory!

And off course, we cannot forget participating in sports is the best way to remain physically fit. The flow of adrenalin also helps to relieve depression and anyone who particiaptes in sports will confirm that is an enormous stress reliever as long as one is not playing in a seriously competitive arena. Sports occupy a very important place in world priorities and for a very good reason. It is definitely a “win-win” situation any way you look at it — as a spectator or a participant.