My Science School

Use of banned substances and doping to enhance performance to gain an edge over rivals. Employing tools like a sandpaper to rub on a cricket ball to make its swing more pronounced, thereby making batting more difficult. Accepting money for spot-fixing or even fixing the outcome of a game. If you think about what links all these different things, it is the fact that these are all forms of cheating prevalent in sports, even at the elite level.

The mentality of winning at all costs through your own performance is a good one to have, both individually and as a team. But when that same mentality pushes you to the brink and makes you adopt malpractices, then it is definitely wrong.

Even though there are checks and balances already in place in most elite sports, this hasn't been enough. Be it bans that prevent participation for a fixed number of years or even a lifetime, it still hasn't proven to be foolproof.

The allure of winning at the greatest of stages is one that might push even the best-intentioned to wrongdoings. It is therefore important to educate from a very young age on the importance of playing clean, regardless of what sport it is.

The reputation of professional cycling as a sport was battered when the repeated doping offences of U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong, once considered an icon in the sport, was proved beyond doubt. Here, a 30-foot effigy of the disgraced American cyclist burns during Bonfire Night celebrations in Edenbridge, south east England in November 2012.

Most elite athletes grow up spending countless hours in their chosen field, losing out on other standard rounded education that most of us undergo. This does come at a cost at times, as implications of a wrong move might not be fully understood before it is done. Apart from ruining their own reputation, that of the sport in which they are involved also takes a huge beating when an individual or a team resorts to cheating to gain an advantage.

What we can do is to keep driving at the message that victory is worthy only if it is attained in the right way. By playing it clean, irrespective of the level at which you are playing the sport, you display gamesmanship that is often remembered, even if in a losing cause. Victories are important, yes. But only when it is attained without bending the rules.

Nurture the young stars

Despite our burgeoning reputation as a powerhouse in a number of sports, India as a country is still lacking and lagging in many others. While the lack of skill might be a reason, it doesn't paint the complete picture.

It is hard to accept that for a country of our size and population, we do not have enough competing at the highest level in many sports. We can make progress in this if we are able to identify talent at a young age and groom them.

In India, there is sometimes a strong emphasis on education, even if it is at the cost of other skills. Without the right backing, many youngsters talented in sports and arts have had to stick to academics. Within sports too, the focus has been in a few select ones, like cricket.

By widening our view as a society, we can make steady improvement. If you are good in a sport and wish to pursue it, you are bound to do better if you feel encouraged to do it. When this goes along with the financial and infrastructural backing of the government and the corporates, then chances are that a new star will be born!

Picture Credit : Google 

Quite a lot, actually. From changing the way we foster sports to tweaking the ways in which we perceive our sportspersons, there are many things that we can work on, right from the time we are at school. Here are five such aspects that we can change, along with activities to make you dwell further on these subjects....

There's more than one sport

Ask anyone who their favourite sports star is and chances are that the answer will be a cricketer. For a country of over a billion, our perspective seems to be rather limited when it comes to sport, as most of us take to just cricket.

From badminton to tennis, hockey to football, athletics and many others, India has a presence in a wide range of sports other than cricket. What's more, we have even had great performances in recent times in a number of these sports.

While backing our cricketers and following the sport religiously does no harm, it shouldn't come at the cost of other sportsperson losing out on our backing. Fans play a central part in performances and the support that we can offer might even enhance how they fare on the day.

It is important to go out and show the support, filling the stadiums and pouring messages of love and support online. While we are already getting better at it and giving more and more attention to those playing other sports, there's plenty of room for improvement.

If we start doing this, then there will be more takers for other sports as well. And when that happens, we might stop looking at whether we have got on the medals tally at the Olympics, and rather look at where exactly we are on the table.

Win or lose, back your stars

We live in an age when there are extremes of emotions all the time. We celebrate our stars and even hero-worship them when they produce favourable results. When these very stars are at the receiving end of heavy defeats, we rubbish them and question their intent.

Even though this has been something that has been around almost all the time, it is now more vitriolic in the virtual world, where everyone's opinions can easily be amplified. Not even in public offices is the public scrutiny so harsh at times, making the position of sportspersons really difficult at times.

While many stars say that they are inside their own bubble and aren't affected by stringent criticism that is sometimes endless, it is our responsibility as fans to indulge in our following in a more effective manner. There is no need to go overboard with our praise, nor is it necessary to tarnish reputations when our country's representatives fail at the first hurdles.

Brewing hate does a lot of harm, not just for the one at the receiving end, but to the sport as a whole. It is important to remember that those representing a country are the finest in their sport in their nation and they would likely want to win, as much if not more, than the fans following the sport.

It might be easy to forget that in the end, elite athletes and sportspersons are also humans. Even though many high-profile sportspersons have voluntarily come out with their mental health issues in recent years, fans continue to associate their stars with superhuman performance all the time. While this creates a lot of euphoria, it also pushes fans to unruly behaviour when their expectations aren't met.

As fans, it is necessary that we change our perspectives and back our stars throughout, regardless of the results. We all want the team we support and the individual representing our country to win all the time. But we also know that there can be only one winner in any tournament as opposed to many losers. It is therefore pivotal that we back our stars during their setbacks, as much as we cherish their wins like our own.

Picture Credit : Google