SPORTS & SOCIETY

SPORTS IN THE PAST

Sports as an activity is probably as old as civilization itself. In the earlier ages, sports like hunting and the earlier avatars of Chess were royal prerogatives with no access to the commoners. In the not so distant past, history books contained accounts of how kingdoms were lost and gained, or countries waged wars for some trivia or other that passed for sports.

New ones have replaced many of the earlier sports, and sports such as Cricket (which in some sense was unknown to India, or if known, was known only to parts of it) have gained in popularity and become instruments of counterpoise between hostile countries (the references should include Shiv Sena's stand on Cricket between India and Pakistan).

THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION

The rise in importance of sports globally is recent. This has to do with more and more countries becoming sovereign and democratic since World War II; passing off the great traditions, with many rapidly and steadily modernizing; increasing industrialization; spread of education; rise of the middle class; and most important, rise of the pervasive entertainment industry, comparable in many senses to the great consumer industry (in some sense the latter subsumes the former), confounded by the ongoing globalization.

How sports became an important social institution, when; and how the great transformation from the local to the global has taken place, are, among other things, in the realm of sports history which only specialists can explain. However, a lay-person's curiosity should raise several issues.

A SOCIAL CONUNDRUM

In the realm of creativity there has never been anything comparable to poetry, fiction-writing, painting, music, philosophy, architecture, and so on. What is notable about most of them is, often the progenitors worked against all odds, lived and died in penury, and their progenies or products gained in popularity when they were dead and gone, to be sold to the highest bidder at mind-boggling prizes, to adorn palaces, drawing rooms, and coffee-tables of the rich and snobbish. (Remember the life and works of world celebrities like Vincent Van Gogh?)

This is in sharp contrast to the works of the dramatis personae of the present entertainment industry of sports and cinema. This industry has become so integral to governments and business houses that overnight an X becomes a Sprint Queen because she can stretch her legs longer and faster, a Y becomes a Grandmaster because he is adept in moving Coins, and a Z becomes a demi-god because he is adept in batting and/or bowling, or in kicking the helpless ball.

The politics and economics of sports

Politicians may argue, at least for public consumption, that running is good for health, kicking is good for legs, and moving Coins (if not minting them!) is good for brain growth. While all this is fine prima facie, the rise in importance of the entertainment industry, especially of sports should raise at least seven issues.

THE ANOMALIES

• In the realm of sports (as in cinema), whether the nations have been going for overkill of their democratic pretensions. More so, when in a world population of about 7 billion only microscopic fractions have access to the sports industry.
• If the nations are spending heavily on sports industry (apparently the tax payers' money!) what are its returns in real diplomatic, foreign trade and foreign exchange terms.
• Whether sponsored by the nations or their business classes, are not the payments to the players of the matches disproportionately too high; more so, when such payments are in addition to all the expenses that go into their training and arrangements for the matches; and the media publicity, which they get and the fan-following which it creates compensate them lavishly for their contribution.
• If certain individuals have chosen sports as their profession, should they not be paid like any other trained professionals such as doctors, engineers, journalists, and what is the need for entrenching and enriching them with too many benefits.
• In a country like India with an alarming rate of unemployment among even the educated, is it fair for the government to arbitrarily appoint someone as an executive, overlooking all others, merely because that person ran faster.
• As the compensation packages for some of the professional tasks are arbitrary, is there no need for regulatory mechanisms in the entertainment industry covering sports, cinema, and even prostitution (to the well being of the prostitutes!), and for ensuring that the income accruing to individuals does not result in unhealthy accumulation by taking away the surplus which is a major requirement for creating the much-needed initial equality of circumstances which alone can result in the later development of equality of opportunities (meaning each individual is equally equipped with the skills and have equal chance to participate in society's opportunity structure).
• As democracy is rhetoric of expectations, will such expectations often not go awry if citizens are treated with invidious and socially outrageous distinctions merely because some professions have mass appeal and fan-following which others do not have.
• When the average citizens have to pass through the rough and tumble to make a living, it is again invidious and socially outrageous that a few, because of government support and fan-following sit on the pile as the world's parasites and lotus eaters. [I have not touched upon match fixing as I believe it is inevitable to the larger sports fixation.]

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