Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Spirit of Sports” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Spirit of Sports

What matters in sport not victory or defeat but how you played the game. This is what we call sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is one of the most desirable qualities in any great player whether he be a cricketer or tennis player, a footballer or any sport person; the spirit of sports separate the excellent from the mediocre, the grain from the chaff. It shows the quality that needs to be imbibed by everyone, whether a player or a normal human being. What exactly does the spirit of sport implies ? It is in fact, the sum total of coolness, modesty, humility, sympathy and above all the element of humanism-an element which is needed in every walk of life.

If we see us around, we can see numerous example, in 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup held in England, Australian captain Steve Waugh showed true sportsman’s spirit when he walked into the South Africa dressing room, after their incredible semifinal match in which the South Africans were eliminated to sympathise with them and compliment them on having played a fine game. The sporting Australian Captain refused to gloat over his victory, sympathising with the side that had lost despite having played a fine game. Thus Australians showed and kept the true spirit of the sport.

Again Australian spin king Shane Warne, showed an outstanding example of the spirit of the sport in the Super six match against New Zealand. Despite being hammered by New Zealand batsman Roger Twose while bowling he was the first man to rush up to Twose and warmly shook his hand after the batsman had hit the winning runs.

The spirit of the sport reflects not only a commitment to follow the rules of the game, but to give credit where it is due to the better side, instead of looking for scapegoats to justify one’s own failures Wasim Akram, the Pakistani cricket captain demonstrated this at the world cup award ceremony in 1999 when he gave the Australian credit for their wonderful performance and by admitting that the better side won.

In earlier times the sports were played by taking full care of the spirit of the sport and strong emphasis laid on the inculcation of the value of true sportsmanship. Today however the situation is different both in sports and in real life. With ‘the winner gets it all’ attitude prevalent today, the spirit of the sport is affected adversely.

Despite the fact that before any major sporting event, like Asian Games, or Olympics etc. all players take the oath that they will keep spirit of sport butnot follow this oath and forget this commitment. An example of the value of this spirit was on display at the 1999 French Open where the world number 1, Martina Hingis threw a ‘temper tantrum’ in one of her matches. Such behaviour would have been totally unheard of even few years ago. Hingis behaviour is doubly disturbing for she only got away with just a dedicated show during the match and a such behaviour needs to be condemned and punished in the strongest terms, to act as a deterrent. Such violations of the spirit of the sport is becoming the order of the day.

Athletics is yet another sport where the spirit of the sport has greatly been eroded. The wide spread use of steroids and the large number of doping scandals that have come to light, only show yet again how true players are violative of their oath of abiding by fair means to win the game.

But, as one has to take the good with the bad if there is Martina Hingis there are also Steve Waugh and Shane Warne. Cricket is not only game to abound with shining examples of the spirit of sport. The sportsmanship is a quality that is required not only in all games but in the most important games of all, the game of life. A ‘good’ loser is always appreciated once he accepts his faults and shortcomings gracefully and admires wholeheartedly the achievements of the winner. No one likes the person who cries and cribs at every failure and who cries to cast the blame on every one but where it is most needed himself.

What is urgently needed is a strengthening of values, of ideals of justice and fair play that have tended to reduce to mere empty words today. The younger generation needs to be convinced that the winner does not get it All the audience and world still love man who can go up to the winner with a smile, shake his hand and say; “you really deserved to win” “I am happy for you” and really mean it. This is the true spirit of the sport.