Importance of Sports in India
“To me, it doesn’t matter how good you are. Sport is all about playing and competing. Whatever you do in cricket or sport, enjoy it, be positive and try to win.”
-Ian Botham
Sports are one of the most important aspects that one must explore. Well, that is because of the various benefits you can get out of it. Unquestionably, at least a little bit of sports is a requirement for everyone to have a fulfilling life.
There is a saying, “Sitting is the new smoking.” Nowadays, we prefer sitting rather than going outside and training our bodies. It is vital that we need to play sports to keep ourselves fit and broaden our horizons.
There are towers of benefits from playing sports, whether it is from an individual perspective or an entire team competing. No matter which sport it is, as one keeps practicing sports, it is certain that one learns throughout the journey.
In developing countries like India, there is a need for keeping up with health. And hence, the importance of sports in India becomes high like a mountain.
Let us see why sports are so important in India:
1) Fitness
According to statista, the share of deaths due to non-communicable diseases in India was over 60%. Non-communicable diseases include diabetes mellitus, high/low blood pressure, most cancers, Parkinson’s disease, etc.
These kinds of diseases cannot be spread from person to person, but these occur due to a lack of fitness, diet, and awareness over one’s health.
Just think about it, as you keep being lazy, your body is in more trouble, is it not? Let us take an example if you do not use your car for many days (say, two months or so), it would struggle to work with the same amount of efficiency as when it was first bought. Your body works the same way.
If you do not give it enough work at the ages of about 15 and above, then your body will find a hard time moving and being healthy when you have to be at your prime (ages of about more than 25-30 years).
So keeping yourself fit is important. And playing sports is one of the purest forms of attaining high levels of fitness.
2) Mental Health
Research has shown that a healthy mind is in a healthy body. So, the fitness of the body has a direct influence on your mind and mental health. The benefits outweigh the cons of not being fit enough physically and mentally.
Sports teach you loads of aspects of mental health, for example, the spirit of consistency, the right perspective towards your goal, calmness, and self-control through any situation, and so on. These aspects fine-tune your mental health entirely.
Sportsmen are generally firm when it comes to mental health. They face bad criticism when they are experiencing a bad patch of their career. But, it is certain that they are ready to forget about the past and keep working harder and perform much better in the future. They enjoy their life and career despite all the negatives they face.
3) Recognition and Pride
It is obviously true, that the more sportsmen succeed under India’s name, the more pride, support, and recognition they get.
For instance, Neeraj Chopra, the man who won the gold for our country in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after numerous years, received loads of appreciation and love from the Indian people. From the news and social media, wishes have been flowing towards him for such a marvelous achievement.
This adds to the reason why the importance of sports in India is significant. Of course, India is at the top in certain sports like cricket. But India needs more.
Other sports have been underrated in India (such as basketball, gymnastics, archery, most track and field sports, and so on.) Unfortunately due to such a reason, these sports cannot be taken further than the zonal/district/state level, hence there is limited to no success in major international events (like the Olympics).
As a result, more sportsmen and talented gems need to be recognized no matter what sport they play. Their only motivation would be our support. Later on, they would soar high and rank among the legends, giving pride to our country.
4) Practicality of Technology
This is a straightforward point. Technology helps judge the fair winner in critical situations. Such as, Decision Review System in cricket, finding out whether the tennis ball landed within the boundaries or not, accurately measuring the distance that a sixer covers, and much more.
So, this is one of the places where technology is put to practicality. Interesting, right?
Well, if you ask why, the reason is simple. Manual errors by humans can be quite prominent and misjudgment of the winner can be identified. Since the technology uses computers that are programmed specifically to do work, there can be no errors seen with reference to the working of the computer, making this a more legible way of making decisions in the game.
Such use of technology in sports can help the tech geeks in India learn a thing or two. The concepts of these aspects of the technology may help create something new and useful in terms of technology. This is the clear relation between sports and technology.
5) Lessons Learnt
No matter who it is, there are certain characters that come to display when they are playing sports. If they have good conduct and character, then sports can help improve it. And if they have a bad character, the player should eventually realize it after losing multiple times.
Many sportsmen have been inspired by various sources and experiences throughout their life. They take these valuable lessons and apply them in their life and we can identify that directly with their success. The greatest of the great have a treasure of knowledge and experience that they would love to share with their juniors.
Patience, teamwork, fearlessness, grit, and determination are only a handful of values that you can absorb from playing sports. Sports teach discipline and reduce stress altogether.
To Indians, sportspersons of great valor and a positive attitude can serve as role models. Judgy people can change and learn from these successful people and the only way to have success is to pave your own path.
From the discussions done above, we can conclude that sports are as important as academic success. If we support and fuel the talent of sportspersons in India, we are sure of gaining happiness and satisfaction that we have achieved uniqueness and specialty as a country.
We are sure to give more pride to our soil, our nature, our Mother India if more sportspersons step up and show what they really are capable of.
To a bright future in sports, Jai Hind.
