"Hate and contempt get hardwired into a million heads" #cricket

Ind vs Pak | Getting Worked Up About It? 😍

Language of ‘Sports’ | Today’s ToI

14 October 2023

The language used in sports reporting, is simply way beyond the ordinary!

It borders on the figurative, with linguistic inventiveness as its terra firma.

One primary criteria expected of all sports writing is that, the writer should make it interesting and exciting!

That’s simply because, sport in itself is interesting and exciting!

The reader hence expects the reviewer (or the feature writer) to give them the thrills through their takes!

As such, reading through the sports news / sports feature, requires a connect with the sophisticated variety of the language!

Sample this –

The Pakistan team seem to be less gung-ho than their Indian counterparts.

The Kiwis were sluggish in their attack.

Today’s Times of India, has an Editorial feature, from their own feature writer, Avijit Ghosh, who takes us on such a figurative ride through his engaging way with words, on the India vs Pakistan ‘bout’ today!

Please do take your morning’s cup of coffee in hand, relax and just enjoy the language of sports in all its grandeur!

Here goes –

The scene promises to be different when India and Pakistan face off on the same ground today.

The two contesting nations share the bad blood of history.

Toxic politics doesn't let the temperature go down.

Social media posts, designed to mock and hurt, are dipped in alphabets of arsenic. 

Hate and contempt get hardwired into a million heads. 

Many of us watch sports against each other through this prism.

  

The hysteria sweeps into other sports, as well, especially hockey. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Indo-Pak hockey encounters were fiercely contested and passionately-followed. 

But neither country seemed prepared for the looming structural changes that reshaped the game. Hockey became a faster and more fitness-demanding game once astro turf was introduced in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. 

Both countries went on the backfoot. 

Four lamenting decades passed before the country returned to the hockey podium. 

Demolishing Pakistan 10-2 might have brought added satisfaction, but then the country, currently in free-fall, is no longer part of hockey's high table.

The old rivalry is irrelevant now. 

The sub-continental rivalry has always been milked by television, especially in more recent decades. 

For most of us, an Indo-Pak game will always carry that extra edge of intensity. However, while celebrating wins and mourning losses, we should remember that sports are not substitutes for war. 

And well, if you are interested in reading more on writings and musings on Cricket, your best bet would be The Picador Book of Cricket!