Level playing field, it’s not cricket, the ball is in your court, calling the shots, front runner, down to the wire, hitting below the belt, jumping the gun, taking sides, out of one’s league, a sporting chance, throwing in the towel — these are just some of the terms in daily use that indicate the central role of sports in the social psyche.

There has been no civilisation or nation that did not integrate sports and games in their social life. Sports generally refer to competitive physical activities, while games include mental or physical activities that are played for enjoyment.

The ancient Greeks introduced formal sports to the world with the first Olympic Games held in 776 BC, with events such as foot and chariot races, wrestling, jumping, and discus and javelin throwing. Many Greek sculptures and paintings immortalised these activities, which were a celebration of the perfect human body. They believed their gods took human form and celebrating the perfect human body was an offering to the gods.

The concepts of agon [struggle, competition] and nike [victory] were essential components of Greek life, and soon became reflective of the ideal human who was disciplined, capable and ethical. Modern Olympics were revived in 1894 in France, inspired by Thomas Arnold’s introduction of sports as “athletic chivalry” in the curriculum of the Rugby School in England. The new Olympics were to reflect a “muscular Christianity”.

Sports is also considered the best training for war. It inculcates bonding, agility, strategy, physical strength and endurance. George Orwell called sport, “War minus the shooting.”

In 1919, after the first World War (WW1), the first Interallied Games were held as a public event in Paris which, after the second World War (WW2), developed into the International Military Sports Council (IMSC) in 1948. The IMSC Games are still held every four years, one year before the Olympics, with 140 nations competing, including Pakistan that has won a number of events. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) founded its first professional sports teams in 1951.

Even non-military sports events are strongly nationalistic, with national anthems played at the start of each match and national flags prominently displayed. Sports became an alternative to war, an acceptable form of inter-nation aggression, Pakistan-India and USA-Russia games being the best-known examples. The defeat of Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union by the American Bobby Fischer at chess in 1972 was seen as nothing less than a military triumph.

Politics and sports have often overlapped. The boxer Muhammad Ali refused to fight in the Vietnam War amid the Civil Rights Movement. Sports was used to isolate South Africa to censure its Apartheid policy. ‘Taking a knee’ in football has become a protest against racism, since 2020, after the killing of George Floyd in the US. The Moroccan football team displayed the Palestinian flag in the Qatar football World Cup with each win. The move for gender equality has seen the growth of women’s sports, harking back to the warring Amazons and the Scythian women archers, challenging all-male sports.

Canada, Britain and Australia have the largest number of sportspersons who have entered politics. George Weah, one of Africa’s greatest footballers, became president of Liberia the same year as the cricketer Imran Khan became prime minister of Pakistan. Journalist Mazhar Abbas says the political vocabulary of Pakistani politics has changed to include sports terms such as kaptaan [captain], umpire, third umpire, match-fixing, wickets, pitch and unfit.

Buzkashi, originally played by Turkic people of North Afghanistan, had no rules and was a training ground for a style of military raids, perhaps still influencing the Mujahideen style of warfare.

Chess or shatranj pieces reflect its political nature — shah [king], ferz [counsellor], rukh [chariot], fil [elephant], faras [horse] piyadeh [infantryman]. The queen became the most powerful piece in the European version during the reign of the mediaeval queens. Shahmaat [the king is dead] became checkmate.

The most popular video games have war themes, including one that allows players to recreate the capture of Osama Bin Laden, introduced just a week after the real event.

The militaristic colouring of sports and games, reflecting the tussle for cultural domination, overshadows the value of games for children, such as gili

danda, kanchay and pithoo, which teach hand-eye coordination, scientific thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, teamwork and leadership.

This aggressive competitiveness, and the enormous $500 billion-a-year sports economy, is a far cry from the concept expressed by Thomas Aquinas of games being “rest for the soul.”

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist.
She may be reached at
durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 25th, 2022