Sports And RecreationBy – Shreyansh Padarha

• Famous sports and what led to their formation?

• Role of Olympics in world peace• Sports commercialization • Sports as Recreation• Why is cricket more popular in India then

other sports ?• What led to the downfall of hockey in India ?• men’s sports more popular in India than

women’s sport• politics involved in sports• Do people believe that sports could lead to

recreation ?• Do children want to adopt sports as a

profession ? • Do parents support their children in choosing

sports as a profession and why ?• How popular is sports in my locality ?

INDEX

Global perspective

History of SportsA formidable question, when has sports started ? Sports has been recorded to start from the time of start of humankind . The first of games (not sports)were throwing spheres, rocks, sticks, and obviously fighting. But the first sport was wrestling then running then long jump and then polo. These all were before Christ. Sports is recorded to be in existence from over than 300 years.Ancient Olympics started in 760 BC ( which were stopped in 339EC) included sports like wrestling, boxing, equestrian, discus, javelin, running and jumping. Modern Olympics started in the year 1896. When money came into sports, bets used to be put on games for fun, popularity started to enter sports.

Famous SportsBaseball- it was originated in 1840s in Northern America and now major league baseball is such a huge hit in U.S.A, every kid in US wants to be in either san Francisco giants or Kansas City Royals.

American Football – started in 1800s was only famous in college divisions ( e.g.. Notre Dam ). But later in 1950s after the start of NFL, American football is the most played sport in U.S after Basketball and Baseball . It’s a game like rugby.

Basketball -was invented in 1891 by James Naismith, a boarding school teacher, he wanted a sport which could be played in winter and He based it on a medieval game called duck on a rock which involved throwing rocks at other piles of rock to knock them over. The most famous basketball league in the world is NBA in America ( its even the highest paid league in the world).

Tennis originated in 1500s, although modern lawn tennis stared in 1877 in England, Wimbledon Championship was the start of tennis. Modern tennis has four grand slams, Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon championship and US Open.

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Cricket- called as “creckett” early on in 16th century, it was started in England and became their national game. Later it spread into many other countries where the British colonies had settled.Cricket today is the most famous sport in the world after football . It has various international tournaments like world cup, world t20 and champions trophy.

Formula 1 – it started in 1946 , That time it had strict rules of Engine and fuel like pre world war 2. In 1960s came the reign of Mercedes and Ferarri. Then 1994 to 2004 was all taken by the world champion, 7 world titles, Michael Schumacher. In F1 There are around 19 grand prix a year and the one with max no. of points at the end of the year wins the title.

Hockey – is as old as 300 years back butModern hockey is recorded to have Started in 14th century by king Edward InEngland. And like Cricket it spread to Mostly those countries which had beenConquered by England, but still manyEuropean countries take part in it.Hockey first featured in Olympics in 1908London . Ice hockey came into existenceAfter hockey.

Football – its been said that football Is existence from 1170 in England but that was just ball and people. Modern Football started in 1863 in England, And now it’s the most popular sport In the world, And the most money Attracting sport, a seat in the FIFA Final cost ₹79800. But this game Promises a lot of fun.

OLYMPICS IN WORLD PEACE Another important contribution to Sports has been Olympics, from 1896 in Athens, Greece

to the latest 2016 Rio Olympics. Its been quite a long journey! The motto behind the modern Olympics (1896-present) is "Faster, Higher, Stronger" Olympics is the worlds largest sporting event, which is held in every 4 years in one of the

cities of the world. More than 15000 Athletes take part in this event, which is divided into two parts Summer and Winter Olympics. Athletes with disabilities take part in Paralympics.

Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, understood that Games had the potential to inspire peace and a sense of belonging among world citizens. And I feel that Olympics has the capacity to create peace, unity and joy among the world

The International Olympic Truce Foundation has a desired outcome –1. Political leaders promote peace in their countries.2. Organise conferences highlighting sport and peace.3. Marshal and deploy young people for the promotion of the Olympic ideals. 4. Develop initiatives with other organisations specialising in the field of peace, including the

United Nations5. Develop educational and research programmes to promote the Olympic Truce Olympics gives a sense of unity in a country, once in 4 years you want to be a person of your

country, support your country on every event, for 2 weeks and feel proud of your country, from where you are. That sense of pride and joy comes into you when your country wins a medal, for once in 4 years you become a countrymen leaving everything behind.

When wars and fights were in place between countries, for once they stopped and took part in the Olympics games, taking a pledge of putting aside their differences and hatred so that thousands could come together in the name of sport to watch naked men battle for honour and fame at the foot of Mount Olympus

Can sport overcome war, poverty, terrorism, hooliganism, discrimination by race, culture, and gender and even combat cyber crimes? The IOC president, was quick to admit that sport cannot impose peace but said: “It might inspire it. Through the Olympic spirit, we can establish brotherhood, respect, fair play, gender equality and even combat doping

Olympics represents peace by a dove with the traditional Olympics flame in the background. In a world where there is no limit to borders of war, terror and inequality, the Olympics truce Dove symbolises the goal of IOC to create peace through Olympics

“By throwing a bridge over continents, by standing above differences of race, social regime or political system, [the Olympic Movement] can bring hope and togetherness so often and so deeply torn apart,” states IOC President Jacques Rogge, who chairs the Olympic Truce Foundation.

Olympics surely increase competition between nations and athletes but this makes the world forget all the problems, war for rights and all the things, maybe for only a short period but it at least makes some peace. Athletes feel all of them are on the same level and world is united watching a mind wobbling event for 2 weeks.

Sports commercialisation • Commercialisation in sports is the involvement of enterprise that

involves sale, display or some aspect of sport to produce income, leading to create more world class facilities.

• All the funding done for all the sports whether its cricket or football, its on the basis of commercialisation.

• Commercialisation in sports is everything from the tickets sold in a match to the sponsor of the team.

• Companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma, NB, Asics, etc. give money to the teams which they sponsor in return players would do ads and support the company. And even companies like FedEx, Nokia, Gionee, Olx, etc. take up sponsorship. But for clothing companies like N.B, Asics, Nike the companies need to give money if they are using equipment. Sane way individual players ( cricket – stickers on bat) give sponsorships, big boards or leagues give sponsorship which create a huge revenue.

• Like in NBA the basketball teams have owners (franchise) who give money to players and profits and losses ae bared by them. Buying a team in NBA costs around nine thousand crores ( including everything ).

• Commercialisation again has changed over the years, when Indian team won the 1983 cricket world cup they got 14.3 lakhs but in 2011 World cup after winning they got 13.8 crores. This is because of more viewers and audience, more sponsors, ads.

• Some criticise that due to commercialisation sports have been ruining sports, but it’s actually a change. Like in cricket Big Bash league and IPL are the latest, which have made some changes in Test cricket like fast scoring, but still test match is as rich as it was.

Sports as RecreationSports has recreated over the years formidably, and

with that people have started to take it comparatively seriously. Seriously not only mean as profession and competition but as a form as enjoyment. At the end of the day it matters that how many people are interested for some sport. This is even in a form of encouragement for players to play better and in this way youngsters get attracted. Sports hadn't earlier ( 1950 ) been a proper field or profession, but now (1980s to present ) it has evolved to be one of them. Earlier, sports hadn't have such a popularity as now, thanks to TV and Internet for that. There has been some redoubtable evolution in Sports.

NationalPerspective

Cricket and its Indian History• Cricket is the most popular sport in India, but how did it

come in India. Cricket started in India in 1848. The first Indian Cricket Club was Parsee oriental Club was founded that year and their first match was is Bombay. Cricket was earlier played in Madras, Bombay, Calcutta. This is because all governors stayed a these places. When games were organised between Indians and British (like wrestling and kushti) the British complained that you should play games of our standard and they started playing cricket. The middle and last half of the nineteenth century was an important period in the history of Indian Cricket, as the game spread its reach in almost all the parts of India during that period.

• First Test match played by India was vs England in Lords, England on 25 June 1932.

Why is cricket more popular in India than other sports ?• Cricket doesn’t requires many things to play, a bat, a ball and couple of players. It

can be played in streets, roads, buildings, colony, and half of the Indian population which plays cricket it plays with tennis ball. And Indian use bricks or chairs as wickets. Quite easy?

• When AstroTurf came in hockey around 1980s and Indian hockey team• Compared to other sports in India, Cricket has the most no. of Coaching centers

and Academies .More players practice.• stopped performing as before it was the same time when Indian cricket team

won the 1983 Cricket world cup • India have 2 world cups, 2 champions trophy and 1 world t20 under their belt,

wont the fans be happy with the performance. • When Lalit Modi introduced IPL in 2008 it earned huge popularity. World class

players from India and around the world take part and some of the unknown players get a chance or platform to be Heroes. Franchises pay money to governing body for buying a team and they give income to players not really income but huge waving of salaries in crores of rupees. And with the Sound effects and team songs and disco lights and all the new things like the light wickets, IPL attracts huge no. of people. People prefer IPL cause its only 3-hour game and has bowlers being hit all over the park and they feel it’s better than the quiet and slow Test Cricket.

Decline of Hockey• Use of Astroturf- From 1928 till 1964 Olympics India won 7 golds and 1

silver out of 8. Till 1976 Hockey was always played on grass court but suddenly in 1976 the FIH announced that hockey would from then on played on AstroTurf it was a big shocker for the Indian Hockey team as they were used to playing on grass fields of Punjab, Kerala, Goa, Haryana where they were unbeatable and were too fast on it. But the new AstroTurf was new for the it did need more physical strength for playing on AstroTurf and they weren’t as fast as earlier. Another problem was that AstroTurf were quite costly(8crore). Indians weren’t able to adapt to it which further made problems. They kept on looing tournaments and couldn’t make glory. In 1976 it was the first Olympics that the Indian Hockey team didn’t get a podium finish. Till that time, it was fine but they kept on losing with made rage inside fans and they started to switch to cricket instead. And Astroturf even required more physical strength.

• Same time Indian cricket team won 1983 world cup which made cricket more popular than Hockey. And hockey team wasn’t performing well which made their situation worse.

Politics involved in sports• Like in sports like cricket players who have their

relatives and known at higher authorities take the advantage and take a place in the team without having the potential to. In local areas people call it making setting. Even players who are over age make a fake birth certificate and play in lower age groups, this all has govt. involved, there is someone in the municipal corporation who does such things in place of money. Bad Players take positions of deserving players by making either fake certificates or by making some setting or bribing selectors. Even some international players take money and play in wrong way and they breach the code of conduct.

Men sports more popular than women sport• In India, the sole purpose of women is to be a house

maker, anything else is not supported even though women such as Lata Mangeshkar, Sania Mirza, and Mary Kom made India proud. They praise these women but do not realize their daughter could be one of them. This thinking brings lack of women athletes and even lack of services for those who are involved. Due to corruption and politics involved in the sports, Indian women athletes when represent India have to do it on her expenses. This also brings lack of participation. When we look at the audience, people are more interested in watching men’s sports rather than women’s sports because first of all due to large scale promotion, men’s sport is already very popular while, due to low population of viewers of women’s sports, it is comparatively very low commercialized which is a disadvantage for women athletes. There are some exceptions to this though. The final match of P.V Sindhu in Olympics got more views than world cup T20 semifinals and biopics are made on women like Mary Kom and Chak De India.

Local Perspective

Views of locals on sports and recreation

Yes

No

Do parents allow their children to make a career in

Sports ?

Cricket

footballothers

bad-minton

tennis

basketball

which sport children like

playing

Yes

No

do people believe sports could lead to

recreation

No

Yes

Do children want to make a career in

sports ?

Yes

No

do you play sports ?

Yes

do both children and parents believe sports as an essential part of

life ?

Thank you