Sports and games have always been of importance at the national, regional or international level, but many among us consider playing them as being disorderly and non-serious in life. Since my childhood I have held sports as the top priority of my life. For me, being into sports is a blessing and benediction. But there is a group of people that looks at it with a different eye; for them it is mere wastage of time and buying sports equipment is wastage of money, which otherwise can be spent in better investments.
People who consider sports as cheap or belittle it, for them life is no less than a business and they look at life as a bank in which after each year they want their balance enriched. Like a financier, they check and measure the interest rates of their kids not annually or quarterly but every day and every second. The unruly life of kids for such people becomes no less than pandemonium. Kids who live in such an environment grow up with the idea that they have been deprived of good things in life by their own parents or guardians.
Success is the sweetest thing which every person wants to taste. Everyone is after it and wants to achieve it by hook or crook, but no one is ready to accept that success comes after struggle. No one is ready to struggle and face failures. One may wonder at times why is an athlete sturdier and fights life like a soldier, or seldom falls prey to acts like suicide. It’s because they (athletes) know that success is the result of many failed attempts. As the saying goes, “The fight isn’t over until you win.” A sportsperson is mentally, emotionally, sentimentally and physically stronger than people who are not into sports, irrespective of their social and economic status. Athletes know how to channelise the ambience and vibes in a positive direction and form.
Lately, the world has come to know the significance of sports for staying fit and healthy, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been seen that athletes were least hit by the deadly disease, because of their healthy lifestyle which boosts their immune system. Sports helps in many ways: it helps a person have a great observation, the ability to take decisions, and moreover, it teaches how to read the mind of an opponent. Besides, it brings in a person the confidence to take risks. Sports imparts in us ‘Decision Quality’ (DQ) and helps us to rely least on others. It brings in us discipline and leadership quality; it makes us understand that the leader will be the one who performs the best. It teaches the practical aspect of life, unlike books which bring to us utopian concepts like Plato’s ‘Republic’ which hardly can be executed or implemented in the world.
Sports teaches us to shun laxity and sloth. A real sportsperson will never come in the field with apathy, droopiness, or dispiritedness. His body will always be hot like red iron in the smithy, and his spirit for victory will remain unquenchable even after many victories. As only practice make a man perfect, these skills can be learnt only through hard work, commitment and dedication.
Sports also imbibes in us ethics and teamwork. Unlike other professions, it spurns in us wickedness, treachery, jealousy and uproots in us deceit and dishonesty. It teaches us that handsome is one who handsome does.
I once met an assistant professor who teaches commerce at Bemina Degree College. He said to me that he owes everything to sports; that his position is the result of the sportsman’s spirit in him. On asking what he meant by these words, he replied, “I was the ace cricketer in my younger days and cricket taught me that it’s not what you say at home or in the pavilion or being a spectator; what matters is, you have go in the field and prove it practically. I followed the same approach in my life, and it bore fruit. That’s why I say, I owe everything to sports.”
In short, we should encourage kids and the young generation to hold bat and ball in their hands or a shuttlecock, rather than heavy books. We should not just ask them to ‘produce’ more and more percentage. Let them also breathe in open air and let them defeat the opponent in things outside the classroom.
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Mufti Jameel Farooq