Every Sport Can Be Fun! An Experimenter's View

Ever since the Open Mic on “What do you consider being a sport?” there have been quite a few debates regarding the validity of certain games being referred to as “sport.”

Most of these have revolved around motor racing and golf.

And being a part of the cricketing world, I can add the T20 to this list.

Before I begin, this is not a late entry for the Open Mic. Rather, just a point of view regarding the whole debate itself, since the dust seems to have settled on it.

What prompted this article was a piece on the popular Cricinfo.com blog titled Different Strokes.

The piece titled “Just not cricket” by Michael Jeh, is yet another wailing against the advent of T20, which is, as the title puts quite plainly, “not cricket,” or in the broader perspective, “not sport.”

In my opinion, sport is whatever that gets the adrenaline flowing.

Therefore, the topic becomes subjective, as different things get the juices flowing in different personalities.

Even chess can be considered a sport for the avid fan who gets excited at the prospect of watching Gary Kasparov playing again!

This is where I would like to make my point.

Every sport is enjoyable by anybody. It just boils down to which base you are at!

Like every relationship, I suppose even the relationship one shares with a sport needs to have bases.

At the beginning, there is the complete disdain.

Lines like “That’s not sport” or “it’s a game for the brutes” or “it’s for slowpokes” are the ones one would most often associate with a sport you don’t really prefer.

Like golf, or Test cricket, or if you are a fan of the latter two, rugby or T20!

I suppose it all begins with the stars.

You first think about it in a different way when you find something even remotely attractive in it.

The initial spark is always superficial! But in sport, love always seems to strike.

That spark could be a bicycle kick by Huntelaar (been seeing a lot of those, haven’t we?) or a birdie by Tiger. Immediately, we feel like seeing some more moments like them.

That’s where it all begins. It’s like the first meeting. You’re not quite sure what to say. So you try to keep it simple and just go with the flow. And there it grips you.

You find that one thing that you can’t keep out of your mind.

That’s where you associate your attention to that one team, to that one player, and it’s just not the same anymore!

It remains fun only when your chap is doing well. You stop caring about seeing the special moments. The closeness of the contest doesn’t matter if THAT team is playing. It’s winning that matters now!

And now you know it, you have been gripped!

You’re chilling with friends, and one of ‘em quips, “Man, you should’ve seen Van der Sar get sent off yesterday!” and you immediately jump in, “That wasn’t even a foul! We deserved to win!” You realize everyone around you looking at you. You didn’t even like football two weeks ago!

The fanaticism begins. You’re just not a “fan” anymore. It’s just not a sport anymore. The game is all there is.

You follow them for the rest of the season. By now, you know every minute detail.

The position Alonso finished at the Australian GP. (When it had actually happened, you didn’t even know an Australian GP existed!)

Every statistic is known by heart.

You start following everything about Federer.

Newspaper columns, online posts, you join every community dedicated to your team on the web. Your team. No more is it “that boring game.” You no longer “don’t care” about who the latest player on the team is!

The transition is almost complete.

Soon you reach that spiritual level, when you can look at the long run and be happy being part of the journey all this time.

You aren’t sad Federer is retiring.

There will be a better driver at Renault next season, and you can celebrate another victory at Sepang, with a different driver at the podium.

Loyalty takes a whole new meaning.

Basically, the point of all this rambling is, you can enjoy any sport on the planet; all you need to do is lower your guard.

To anybody who says Test cricket is “boring,” drop the cynicism at home, and go for the Fifth Day at Lord’s.

It just takes a little bit of time.