Although recently England has lost badly in both One Days and Tests, that doesn’t stop me from appreciating their innovativeness in sports. If not for the English people, there would not have been so many different outdoor varieties of sports today. Almost all the sports, widely known today, have been invented and popularized by the Britishers, be it football, cricket, hockey, tennis, rugby, basketball or badminton.
They don’t stop after inventing a game. They keep on researching and are always on the lookout for new rules, different strategies and techniques. They always keep on trying different ways to make the game more interesting and enjoyable to the audience. Cricket can be a good example to prove all the above statements. When the English invented cricket, it was Test type of cricket. Then they refined it and shortened it with new rules and developed One Day International form, which was gradually accepted by all the cricket boards of other countries. But they went on further to shorten it to a Twenty20 format game, which is yet to find acceptance by all, including country officials and critics.
Even within the cricket game, they continuously researched and found out better techniques of batting, bowling out, etc. For example, the famous controversial “BodyLine Technique”, was also as a result of innovative British ideas.
Today England still gives lot of respect to its traditional and purest form of cricket, namely Test Cricket. People still find time and turn out in large numbers to enjoy this sport. We can always find young English ladies and gentleman out there in the stadium under a sporty umbrella passionately watching and enjoying cricket. Now there is talk of cricket being included as a proper sport in Olympics. “When so many sports are already there, then why not the popular cricket” is the typical argument of Britishers. I am sure when the next Olympics 2012 is hosted in London, cricket definitely would be an Olympic sport as well, thanks to the British Olympic organizers. Perhaps cricket being in Olympics would give them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.
Even though England has never won the World Cup in both One Day and Twenty20, it still holds cricket in high esteem. It still plays all formats of cricket and enjoys them. That would never happen in India where a defeat or victory decides the fate of sport. The domination of cricket over hockey proves it. We should learn from England where despite defeats, all games are still alive and very much popular.
Posts
1 comment:
Hmm..good observation. English innovations are not just limited to sports but extend to other spheres as well like trade,exploration,political science,engineering and so on.
After all the english can be credited with finding the sea routes, discovering and nurturing nations like australia and US, founding the modern notion of democracy, setting the tenets of capitalism etc. So innovativeness is nothing new to the English.
However they also had some negetive traits like decietfulness, double standards, arrogance etc.
Post a Comment