Sports have a much higher value than mere simple entertainment. What is this higher value? This higher value lies in the constructive role that sports play in character building. In this connection it would be very relevant to recall what the Duke of Wellington once said about the value of sports. He said that the battle of Waterloo had been won on the playgrounds of Eton. A little reflection will show that these remarks are based on hundred per cent truth and there is no exaggeration. These only bring to limelight the importance of the excellent qualities of character that sports are capable of producing. Besides being a real source of recreation, sports teach and cultivate certain qualities of the head and the heart, such as courage, sportsmanship, honour, fair play, discipline, dutifulness, obedience, the will to fight ones way to victory, the team-spirit and unity of purpose and action. These qualities symbolise the real virtues of a sportsman who plays the game of life.
Sports develop the spirit of courage, manliness, the will to fight against odds and unfavourable and averse
circumstances.
A true sportsman is endowed with indomitable courage that emboldens him to fight to the end to win. He never loses heart and faces rough and tough situations cheerfully, and with full vigour. They inculcate in the sportsman the quality of accepting both defeat and success with a smile and without any ill-will or hatred towards anybody, especially the opponents. This quality renders the International Sporting events all the more important.
At the International Sporting events, sportsman from various countries having different social, economic and political systems and ideologies come together. In their inter-action, all the virtues and qualities of sportsmanship come into full play. To a sportsman, nothing is dearer than his honour. A true sportsman would neither conduct himself in a dishonourable