Kabaddi or karma
WHo doesn't know that 5 Ss spell success in sports? They are skill, speed, stamina, style and sportsman spirit. But why is sportsman spirit the most important of them? In a basic sense, sportsmanship is about conforming to the rules of the sport. A sportsman must go at a sport with the will to fairly win or gracefully lose. Once he is ready to accept the outcome, the sport he plays turns into a healthy spectacle.
Sportsmanship varies from nation to nation, as do national sports. Buzkhashi is the national sport of Afghanistan. Charreria is the national sport of Mexico. Likewise, baseball is the national sport of the US, table tennis of China, hockey of India, and kabaddi of Bangladesh. All nations play all kinds of sports, but each nation plays one sport that may be an intrinsic part of its culture.
Let us take the Russians, for example. They don't have a national sport as such, although chess is a popular game amongst them. Only for three years since 1948 has there been a non-Russian champion of chess in the world. Rueben Fine, a chess player turned psychoanalyst, argues that chess has captured the national ethos of Russia more than any other sport or game played by its people.
So, Rueben claims that Russian chess players Boris Spassky and Mikhail Botvinnik reflected Communist Russia's culture and character in their games. But a romantic, slashing player like Dr. Alexander Alekhine grew up under the Czars. Modern Russian players prefer to concentrate on strong defensive positions, because it reflects "their national feeling of threat by encirclement."
History bears it out. The Russians have seldom led surprise attacks early in their wars. They prefer to win by attrition, followed by a last-minute counterattack. Which is also the Russian style of playing chess. This style has been shaped by Russia's experience with Napoleon in 1812 and Hitler in World War II. Both times, the enemy led the surprise attack, only to be defeated by Russian endurance.
Further to note, the Russian players are more willing to settle for a draw. This is how they look at it. It's better to salvage half a point than to lose a whole point. In terms of competitiveness, the Russians play the board rather than their opponents. Competitiveness is more pronounced in Western Europe and rampant in the United States.
Mark Dyreson is a professor of kinesiology and history at Pennsylvania State University, who studies the connection between sport and nationalism. According to him, baseball was the dominant metaphor in the American life from 1880s to the end of 1950s. Baseball was not only a major topic of everyday conversation, but also influenced the way the Americans talked.
However, the American obsession with baseball has been undergoing change. The number of baseball fans has been dwindling for decades. A Harris Interactive Poll conducted in December 2006 revealed that 29% sports-loving Americans named football as their favourite sport against 14% who named baseball.
Table tennis is China's national addiction. Chairman Mao decreed it the national sport of China because he could see a convenient connection between its subtlety and lack of pretension and the Chinese psyche. He extolled the table tennis players as icons of revolutionary virtue, and promoted the fact that the game was played with distinctive penholder grip -- holding the bat between the thumb and forefinger.
Mathew Sayed of The Times of UK writes: "The kerplock-plock of ball on bat is the rhythm that unites the nation." In fact, table tennis is the facet of China's national identity. The sport played a critical role in melting the ice between the United States and China after American player Glenn Cowan befriended China's Zhuang Zedong at the World Championship at Nagoya in 1971.
Photos of their handshaking appeared in the Japanese press, which created an opportunity for Mao to invite the US table tennis team to visit China. It paved the way for the US president to visit ten months later. Mao was impressed when the entire episode was termed "ping pong diplomacy."
It's interesting that kabaddi is the national sport of Bangladesh. The word kabaddi is believed to be of Tamil origin, although the game is 4,000 years old. But why is it our national sport? India has been winning gold ever since kabaddi was included in the Asian Games held in Beijing in 1990.
How does kabaddi reflect our national ethos? How does the way it is played tell anything about our national culture? Two teams occupy opposite halves of a field. They take turns sending a "raider" into the other half, tagging or wrestling members of the opposing team. In short, kabaddi is about attacking the opponent's formation and returning safely.
Two political parties. Two recalcitrant leaders. The country is divided into two political halves. Kabaddi or Karma?
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a columnist for The Daily Star.
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