I am scared to admit it. Being in a sport-obsessed nation now, I am truly terrified to admit that I am not too big on sports.
Fitness apart, the singular aim of all sports seem to be meaningless pursuit. Oh! I did stay awake till 4 in the morning watching the World Cup opener. Still!!?? I can't imagine the 'silliness' of spectator sport. Soccer, undeniably the world's most popular sport is just running after a ball. And one person with his nose at the right place at the right moment, bingo! a match is won. If you believe taking a round, air-filled rubber from one end of a green patch to the other is why we shed the leaves-skirt, shame on you.
And Cricket, the most popular sport in the Indian subcontinent is sinful waste of good time, considering it is the only game I know of with a lunch break.
Spectator sports has its own heirarchy. Golf as you may all agree is at the bottom of the chain. Next being motorsports. You have to be made of some special stuff to sit through 50 laps. Round and round and round. Geez!
Soccer/football is very near the top. Still, I think Cricket is better than Soccer with regard to spectator interest. I mean, the trouble with football is that being low scored, (or at worst no scores), there is less to keep the fan thrilled. Very little happens for the majority of the match when compared to cricket where there is a boundary here and a wicket there and scores like 250-300. If only cricket took lesser time (the 20-20 is a positive step in that direction) it can become more spectator-friendly.
Given my constraints of time and love for big-sounding numbers, my vote goes to Tennis. It doesn't take all day. There are an awful lot of points to score. One silly mistake and the match isn't a goner. One can lose a set (or two) and still win (did you watch Kuznetsova win Vaidisova from one set down). And it is far more refined than any of the other sports. Take Rugby for instance. I don't know what cruel pleasure one can derive from seeing man maul another man, punch him in the stomach and drag him around like he was a rag-doll. Some sociologists have gone as far as to tell that contact sports like Rugby and Boxing needs to be banned and are strange reminders of a barbaric past. Not so surprisingly, I agree.
While we would frown at a Roman mob watching and relishing a gladiator fight and butcher another person to death and call them savages, we fail to see that these sports are the same. Maybe less brutal, but still savage.
(A Rugby player died yesterday after he sustained injuries to his head during a game three days ago. And here is the messed up part, his father says "He played the game they play in heaven and now he's there". What the f*ck?????)
Everytime an Indian fan howls that we don't have the animal-spirit to win in the international arena, I am actually happy. (I know it looks like a case of sour grapes but seriously). I think as a society we have shown sophistication. Our emperors did not (I hope historians reading this piece agree) conduct public spectacles of violent debauchery and spectator sport was near non-existent. Sport was an activity of leisure and a pursuit of fitness and was given no other status. While we still fought wars and warriors were respected and honoured for their skill, it is not the same as sports. At the height of its civilization, India did not initiate an Olympics, it did not construct a colloseum. We didn't lose out on anything, did we?. I am proud.
8 comments:
Oh. Oh. Oh. Great minds and all that. I posted on football last night. :D
i think, after reading this post, that sports are one way of celebrating our origins, and revelling in it. something like we shouldnt be ashamed of where we came from, i suppose.
when it comes to watching a match [on tv] for the sheer thrill, my vote goes to football. your attention is riveted for 45 minutes, with no adbreaks or any other distractions. and 45 minutes is the maximum time a person can keep his attention on one thing continuously.
but when it comes to remote-control friendly, nothing can beat cricket. you can channel-surf, and not miss much, thanks to the frequent replays, and you can check on how much the game has progressed by looking at the score, which wouldnt stick at the same position for too long, unlike football.
It takes lot of courage to hammer out an 'anti-sport' post coming from an indian where cricket is considered above any religion..
For some, life is a sport, for others, sport is life....
@ Lalita
Great minds, uh? Ofcourse.
@Slice of Life
Welcome to the blog.
If India gives less importance to sports, then it is not a bad thing after all. Olympic gold medals are not a pre-requisite of a good society. Sporting activities in the world arena are secondary.
@Priya
Agree with u on the attention span thing. 45 minutes of non-stop, uninterrupted-by-ads action is good.
But for soccer being popular, I feel at some level everyone of us wants to conform, belong to the group, be a part of the majority. so being a supporter of the football world cup is seen more as necessity than a matter of taste.
@Vijay
I am sure that being anti-sports is absolutely ok with Indians. I was afraid of the aussies. They simply worship all sports, the uglier the better.
Aussies have only 2 things in mind at any given point of time in their lives..
1. footy
2. beer
Absolutely true Vijay! I am sure u wud know. (Replace footy by rugby (union and league), cricket, soccer, basketball, tennis, motorsports, horseracing and every sport conceivable including something that resembles goli and u get the complete picture)
Aussies are a sporty lot, and they take it all very seriously.
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