Sport in our life

Sport has become an integral part of human life. The word 'Sport' has originated between 1910 and 1915.It connotes a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Over the years sport has undergone an amazing metamorphosis. Though the sport was initially developed for recreation of the human beings, it has a monstrous growth in the modern days and has become high-tech.

Sports, athletic games or tests of skill were undertaken primarily for the diversion or recreation of the participants or spectators. Sport has great and varied manifestations.Sport is restricted to any play, pastime, exercise, game, or contest performed under given rules. It is played either indoor or outdoor, on an individual or a team basis, with or without competition, but requiring skill and some form of physical exertion. Some sports, such as hunting, fishing, running, and swimming were evolved out of the primitive ways and lifestyle of human life. Some, such as riding, shooting, throwing the javelin, or archery derive from early military practices and background. Sports, like boxing, wrestling and jumping, arose from the spontaneous human outbursts and challenges and occasional hostilities that accompanied human interaction.

The development of sport in the ancient and middle ages and in the modern days is phenomenal. In the ancient days, the Greek and Romans had evinced a keen interest in developing sport. It was the Greek who organized the Olympics and interestingly people from all over the world participated and witnessed it. Thus modern Olympics originated in Athens city of Greece. The feudal system of the middle ages hampered the growth of sport that was revived only in the days of renaissance. In the modern days, especially in the 20th century, sport had witnessed an organized growth and development of games like baseball in the US, cricket in England, hockey in countries like India and Pakistan. Olympic games, Pan-American games, Commonwealth Games and Afro-Asian Games etc were organized and held at periodic intervals, making the sport as an international phenomenon.

In the 21 the century,sport has developed with high tech facilities. With the increasing globalization of the games like cricket , football and hockey and their increasing change of game rules and the umpiring controversies, the building of ultramodern stadia and the provision of adequate infrastructure facilities etc have further complicated their problems and put them under a heavy financial stake. On the other hand technology has facilitated live telecasting and viewing of the matches and games so easy, thereby easing the common mans' burden to some extent. The Olympic events have been held under the auspices of International Olympic Association. Almost all world countries have become members of IOA and participate in Olympics periodically held once in four years. Similarly cricket has a governing council called ICC to hold the world cup and champions trophy etc with the motive of spreading cricket throughout the world. Hockey had an International governing council known as IHF, encompassing all hockey playing members. Similarly soccer world cup is being held under the auspices of an international organization once in four years and the member countries has to go through a rigorous qualifying rounds before participating in the soccer world cup. Modern sport has also witnessed the evolution multimillionaires like Sachin Tendulkar in cricket, Ronaldo in soccer, William sisters in Tennis, who rose to prominence by dint of their skills and hard work in their respective games.

The modern sport has also witnessed the growth and development of sport and its allied industries, like media industry like sports journalism, sports education, online games etc. Each country has a separate sports ministry and countries like India has a separate Sports Authority of India, with sufficient funds to function separately and independently. Sports goods and apparels like tennis ball, rocket etc in tennis, bat, ball, flannels, sport wears etc in cricket, hockey sticks, synthetic astro turf etc in hockey are the money spinning projects globally. Sponsorship is a modern feature in popular games, involving millions of dollars. Similarly, popular players of cricket or soccer or tennis etc are engaged by the companies to advertise their products, spending millions of dollars. Last but not least, sport is not only meant for recreation but also has the object of keeping the individual concerned in good health and stamina. We are all aware that a healthy person is a wealthy person and sport is the secret of ones' health as well as wealth.