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LAMHIL SEPTEMBER <strong>2012</strong> OPINION<br />
22<br />
how to work together, to become not only<br />
good winners, but also good losers.<br />
Thirdly, the statement that the<br />
battle of Waterloo was won on the<br />
playfields of Eton , implying that playing<br />
games and the spirit of sportsmanship help<br />
to inculcate lasting values, which make for<br />
good soldiers, good fighters and good<br />
discipline, apart from promoting 100 per<br />
cent physical fitness. In British schools and<br />
colleges, the fullest importance is given to<br />
sports, especially cricket and football.<br />
The result has been the creation<br />
of a healthy, well-developed, disciplined<br />
and efficient society in which people know<br />
the right proportions in life, put everything<br />
in the right perspective, and seldom<br />
conduct themselves in an unsporting,<br />
ungentlemanly and unbecoming manner.<br />
Playing the game on the playground<br />
naturally instructs people to play the game<br />
of life in the right spirit, which is what<br />
matters most, not victory or defeat.<br />
According to sociologists,<br />
society gains in many ways when the<br />
government encourages sports and games<br />
everywhere, provides playgrounds, the<br />
necessary equipment and other facilities,<br />
and rewards outstanding sportsmen, so as<br />
to encourage others also to play games.<br />
The crime graph dips, which means that<br />
the incidence of general crimes decreases<br />
because the right spirit and the right<br />
approach to things is developed on the<br />
playground.<br />
Sport, it has been said, is not only<br />
a manifestation of animal energy of<br />
surplus strength to develop more strength;<br />
it is, in addition, a safe and wholesome<br />
outlet for the aggressive spirit in human<br />
beings.<br />
Those who violate the rules, play foul<br />
or exceed the permissible limits, or indulge<br />
in tactics that are unfair, are promptly pulled<br />
up by the referee or the umpire. Anyone who<br />
refuses to mend his ways or to repeatedly<br />
violate the rules is ordered to quit the field<br />
and is replaced by another player. This helps<br />
to inculcate the habit of respecting the judge<br />
and of observing the rules.<br />
Some observers have contended<br />
that there is a close link between sports and<br />
a country!s industrial development and the<br />
general progress of society. That is why it is<br />
contended, most of the gold medals at the<br />
Olympics are bagged by advanced countries<br />
such as the U.S.A., Russia and Germany, and<br />
Britain too manages to bag a few of them.<br />
Of the eastern countries, China and Japan<br />
plunder most of the gold and silver medals.<br />
Is there a link also between<br />
performance in sport and a country!s military<br />
might? Militarily, China is the most powerful<br />
country in the East, but Japan, which matches<br />
the U.S.A. in industrial, especially electronic<br />
ad-vancement, does well in sports despite<br />
its small size. India is a large country of<br />
continental size, and given the proper<br />
incentives and the necessary facili-ties, this<br />
country!s sportsmen should do well on the<br />
sports field, but whether it is the climatic<br />
factor, the lack of adequate nutrition and of<br />
incentives, our sportsmen do not compare<br />
favourably with those of the USA, Russia,<br />
Ger-many and Australia.<br />
In any case, the relatively poor show<br />
of our athletes in international competitions<br />
does not weaken the case for encouraging<br />
sports which help to lay the foundations of<br />
a healthy, sound society. The cost is returned<br />
several- fold.<br />
(Source: - www.preservearticles.com)