Watch the film
'Chak de India' and write
an essay about the sporting spirit with
respect to George Orwell's essay
'The Sporting
spirit'
Answers
Explanation:
Now that the brief visit of the Dynamo football team has come to an end, it is possible to say publicly what many thinking people were saying privately before the Dynamos ever arrived. That is, that sport is an unfailing cause of ill-will, and that if such a visit as this had any effect at all on Anglo-Soviet relations, it could only be to make them slightly worse than before.
Even the newspapers have been unable to conceal the fact that at least two of the four matches played led to much bad feeling. At the Arsenal match, I am told by someone who was there, a British and a Russian player came to blows and the crowd booed the referee. The Glasgow match, someone else informs me, was simply a free-for-all from the start. And then there was the controversy, typical of our nationalistic age, about the composition of the Arsenal team. Was it really an all-England team, as claimed by the Russians, or merely a league team, as claimed by the British? And did the Dynamos end their tour abruptly in order to avoid playing an all-England team? As usual, everyone answers these questions according to his political predilections. Not quite everyone, however. I noted with interest, as an instance of the vicious passions that football provokes, that the sporting correspondent of the russophile News Chronicle took the anti-Russian line and maintained that Arsenal was not an all-England team. No doubt the controversy will continue to echo for years in the footnotes of history books. Meanwhile the result of the Dynamos' tour, in so far as it has had any result, will have been to create fresh animosity on both sides.
Answer:
Sportsmanship, in this connection, means the right spirit in which a man should take part in any sport, or play any game. Analysing “the sporting spirit”, we find its component parts are fair play and no favour, enthusiasm for the game, generosity to opponents, pluck, and the ability to take defeat well.
It goes without saying that a real sportsman will never dream of cheating in a game, or of taking any unfair advantage of his opponent. He will always “play fair”, and honourably keep the rules of the game. And he will not expect any concessions from his opponent. He wants keen competition and fair play.
He takes the game seriously. He has no patience with the man who plays at playing, and who does not care whether he wins or loses. He is keen to win, and plays with all his energy to beat his opponent. There is nothing lukewarm about his style of play, and he expects his opponents to be as earnest as himself.
And yet he will always be generous to his foe. He would rather give away a point than claim an advantage, even though he may do so without breaking any rule of the game. And he will give in to this opponent’s claim, even though it is wrong, rather than wrangle over a disputed point.
He will play a losing game with pluck and patience. An un sportsman-like player will often get into a temper when he is being defeated, and throw the game away in a pet, like a spoilt child. But the true sportsman keeps in a good humour even when he is losing, and shows the greater pluck the more the odds are against him.
The final test of a real sportsman is whether he can take a defeat well. If, when defeated, he can sincerely congratulate his triumphant opponent, and shows no signs of humiliation or vexation, then he has indeed the true sporting spirit.