6 Sportsmanship

Sportsmanship is a complex-term. It means a number of virtues that are acquired on the playfield. It implies in the first instance team-spirit or the spirit of working in cooperation with others to a common end. For instance, in football, cricket or hockey, a fixed number of people play against one another. If a particular member of a team does not play in active cooperation with the rest of the team, that team has littlechance of success. Again, every game is governed by certain rules, which are strictly observed by alJ the players, taking part in the game. The referee or the umpire supervises the game and enforces the rules of the game; it is his business to see that there is no foul play. To have to submit to the rules of the game teaches the value of discipline. Judgment, quickness of understanding and decision, precision and accuracy and acceptance of defeat with a smile are some of the virtues that all sports have to teach. For the left-out on ,tne football field to place the ball at the centre and for the centre forward to score the goal require of the players both quickness of judgment and precision and effectiveness of stroke. Those who have witnessed Shahbaz Senior, the wizard of the world of Hockey, scoring goal after goal with the unerring sureness of a master admire the players fine qualities of character Sports may be grouped under two heads: outdoor and indoor games. Outdoor games may, again, be subdivided under two heads: the manlier games include football, cricket, polo etc. while the more gentlemanly games include of course Tennis, Badminton etc. Indoor games also admit of a twofold, classification; the more active games include ping-pong and billiards while the more intellectual variety comprises chess and bridge. Lastly, there is a cla.ss of sports known as aquatic sports. Aquatic sports are encouraged in Bengal while games like Cricket, Tennis and Hockey, are played with enthusiasm in the Punjab. Every sport, whether played in water or on land, manly or gentlemanly, outdoor or indoor, teaches two virtues: discipline and the capadty\.o accept defeat with courage. Besides games, there are athletics. Athletics include the sprints, the High-Jump, the Long Jump and the Hurdles. As Quckett says in his little book on Athletics. How to Succeed, the commonest evenjt in your school sports is the sprints. Again, as the same writer adds, the High Jump is an event in which girls excel. Not because UK jump higher than the boys, but because they jump more gracefully. The different kinds of athletics also teach more or less the same virtues of character. No less important are the qualities of the body such as suppleness and agility of the physical frame which are required in most kinds of games and athletics. Sports are a great leveller of personal vanity. A sportsman is an optimist; if he fails in the first round, he is not down-hearted. He is neither a visionary nor an idealist; he is a realist and faces boldly the realities of the playfield. Though there is an element of chance in every game, outdoor or indoor, yet personal endurance is a more decisive factor than mere luck. It is often said, the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playfields of Eton. There is some truth in this statement. It means in simple language that most of the heroes of the famous Battle of Waterloo had learnt the spirit of sportsmanship while playing games at Eton. The greatest danger in sports is professionalism. .Professionalism is in fact the bane of sports in Pakistan as elsewhere in the world. Those who look upon sports as a career miss the very spirit of sports. Professionalism breeds jealousy, rivalry and personal ambition. Sports should always be regarded as an exhibition of mental

powers and animal spirits accordin_ to the rules of the game with no material object in view. The Annual Olympics and other games and athletics should, therefore, be always conducted on amateur lines.

In an ideal college, there should be a perfect harmony between the classroom and the playfield. Mere academic learning is of no avail in life. If the boys and girls at schools and colleges imbibe the true spirit of sports, they can well apply it to life. In all spheres of life, social or political, sportsmanship is a great source of strength and inspiration.