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Sports ensure you are physically fit. Physical activity stimulates endorphins, the released hormones, increasing your well-being. It is no wonder that even chess champion Carlsen’s daily routine involves physical exercise, including playing tennis, basketball, or soccer for an hour or two.
But sports are much more than just the physical aspect. It is a great teacher. If it is an individual event like athletics or archery, you compete against others and yourself. It teaches you to motivate yourself without the support of other players. It teaches you to focus. If it is a team sport, it teaches you respect for your mates and coordination. Team sports, it is said, bolster the five Cs- competence, confidence, connections, character and caring. Team sports teach you that there is something greater than us.
Sports, most importantly, teaches you humility. In the ongoing Euro football, the brilliant but vain CR 7 missed a penalty and was reduced to tears; in Wimbledon, the winner of last year’s lady’s singles winner, Marketa Vondrousova, lost this year in the very first round.
And then we have the spirit of cricket: respect your teammates and opponents, play hard and fair, accept the umpire’s decision, create a positive atmosphere by your conduct, show self-discipline, congratulate your opponents and the officials and the opposition. This is part of the ethos of the game. Everybody understands when told ‘this is not cricket’ that you have not been playing fair. These are dictums that apply as much to life.
Playing hard and fair involves training and practice, knowing that irrespective of the results of a match, it must be played within the rules. Self-discipline involves restraint, perseverance, and having goals. It teaches you to take the blow of defeat on your chin and motivate yourself to do better the next time. It makes you enjoy the better performance of your opponent and man enough to congratulate them. Each of these are virtues that will make you a better person and help you face the vicissitudes of life bravely. Mike Brearley, arguably the most astute captain the game has seen, says it best: 'Examining the topic of the 'spirit of cricket' is one route into wider questions about honesty, transparency and generosity; about deviousness, trickiness and cheating.'