The equation of sports and religion
By Aamir Bilal
The famous opening monologue by the central character of movie 'Bull Durham' establishes a powerful relation between sport and religion as Susan Sarandon narrates: "I believe in the church of baseball. I've worshiped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things, for instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. You see, there's no guilt in baseball. And it's never boring. It's a long season ahead and you have to trust it. I've tried them all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."

The Pakistan Cricket team bombed out again in the last match against New Zealand. This once again proved that the adjective that best describes it is 'inconsistent'. There is of course a silver lining in this judgment. We conclude this only because we believe in the quality of the team. We believe that this cricket team numbers amongst it some great present and budding cricketers that do not always play to their true potential.

No team can win all the time and to expect this is unreasonable but and this is important, they must always be trying their best and their level of play should match their ability. The Pakistan Team has been described by the worlds best commentators variously from 'brilliant', 'gifted' to the 'the team to beat' but inconsistency is the most used comment by them. It is without doubt that many conspiracy theories abound whenever a hiccup occurs in any system.

We will now, however, have to accept that something is not quite kosher with our cricket team. The recent matches have exhibited a number of strange selection decisions. Since the Tour Selection Committee included the Chief Selector, coach and captain (Minus the Vice; OOPS Minus One) and present there were the CEO and Chairman, one would have expected that selection would have been more rational and based on the best team available. This was not the case. In match 1 Shoaib Malik was omitted and his 'face language' on television said it all. In matches 2 and 3 the decisions in selection and then the batting order was even more baffling. It is not surprising that we lost the series. The fall guy in this drama which commenced with the Chairman having a private conference with Afridi (Courtesy the coach) some weeks ago ended with Younis Khan being re-appointed. The fact that the continued slump in his batting form has also contributed to this mess is not surprising. It would have required a super human effort and a lot of luck for Younis to overcome the multiple groupings that he had to contend with in managing his team. What cannot be explained is what exactly were the Manager and coach doing in these proceedings. The Manager is a fine person but his appointment was less for his undoubted ability than for the requirement of keeping the peace between Younis and Afridi. Too much water had been 'pumped under and through' the bridge for this to have been possible. They are both fine cricketers but 'nous' is not either's best asset. As for the coach, the less said the better.

There are two pieces of history that I would like to include for the readers so that they might make their own conclusions from the above chain of events; the current Chairman was the Manager of a Pakistan Team touring Australia where the players revolted against the captain. Secondly the current coach was once charge sheeted by the PCB for telephonically making a very serious complaint against a player whilst on tour and in his capacity as coach but omitting it from his written report. He had been instructed during the telecom that he was to record the complaint in writing. The opinion was that the reasons could have varied from 'trouble making' to 'lack of moral courage'. The last appointment of Younis Khan as a captain was surely due to pressure resulting from mismanagement of the alleged 'match fixing' issue. This prevented him being made the fall guy at the time.

This did not mean that the story ended there or indeed has even ended here. The wide range of comments being made by so many senior retired players about the present change in the captain also gives a clue to what is the under current in this on going drama. Yousuf is a great cricketer and may well be a good captain but it is opined by some that his appointment is just a stop gap to bring back Shoaib Malik. Well time will tell.  Whatever may end up happening one thing is certain that all this is not in the interest of Pakistan Cricket.

The Governance of the PCB must be considered the basic reason for the continuing disasters in the cricket fortunes of Pakistan. The long list of appointments and disappointments which show the ineptness of the management are too well known to bear repetition. The total lack of any kind of plan to improve our Domestic Cricket after so many months suggests that we should not hold our breath for any improvement in this sector. The absence of any coherent plan to bring back international cricket to Pakistan points strongly in the same direction. The visible lack of any improvement in the cohesion of our team is also apparent to all. The financial dealings of the PCB highlighted in the Draft Audit Report by the A.G.P appear to continue as before. All this suggests that Governance or indeed lack of it lies at the root of our problems. But then one must conclude with the greatest of regret that when we look at the state of Politics and the state of Governance in our beloved Pakistan it is probably unfair of us to expect any different from the PCB.

malikgilani2002@gmail.com

The famous opening monologue by the central character of movie 'Bull Durham' establishes a powerful relation between sport and religion as Susan Sarandon narrates: "I believe in the church of baseball. I've worshiped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things, for instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I learned that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. You see, there's no guilt in baseball. And it's never boring. It's a long season ahead and you have to trust it. I've tried them all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."

Viewing the equation between sports and religion is exciting yet complex because it has changed dramatically throughout the centuries. Originally, with the Greeks, athletic competitions were mixed with religious ceremonies. But with the rise of Christianity and puritanistic beliefs, athletics became a sinful activity scorned by the clergy and religious fanatics.

The Greeks were extremely religious. Being polytheistic, they believed that particular gods could provide assistance in all aspects of life. The competitive games of Greek culture grew out of their religious and cultural ceremonies directed to these gods. The Greek held religious festival with feasts, dancing and athletic contests to honor the gods. The most famous of these contests, the Olympic Games, was held in honour of the warrior god Zeus. The entire first day of the games was made of religious ceremony including oaths, prayers, sacrifices and the signing of hymns and the sacrifice of one hundred oxen at the altar of Zeus.

The main sporting activity in medieval Europe was a grand tournament, seen as a preparation of war. These ceremonies were filled with semi-Christian rituals because of the deep European belief that God favored the strong and just. Because of this belief, the results of these combats were seen as a judgment by God.

The Americans have historically institutionalised sport and recreation as an embodiment of national values. The obvious influence on sports in American society is the protestant ethic which emphasizes rational labor, goal directed behavior and competitive achievement. Before 1850 most protestant groups like extremist mullahs of our society condemned sports because they thought that sports diverted attention and consumed energy that could have been spent in the exercise of faith. Simply, sports and leisure deflected attention away from possible service to god.

But when society became dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, Americans men in the late nineteenth century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. This form of newly manly culture, developed out of protestant churches, was known as "Muscular Christianity".

As this movement flourished in USA and west, Theodore Roosevelt pushed for the "strenuous life" as a means of imposing self-discipline and reasserting the culture and interests of Protestants in America and abroad. The YMCA movement, which began in the late 19th century, was part of a larger strain in American Protestantism, which promulgated a connection between physical health and salvation. They promoted organized sports that can evangelize and effect social reforms.

Sports are believed to be religious in the sense that they are organized institutions, disciplines and, liturgies and also in the sense that they teach religious qualities of heart and soul.

Though most of sports in subcontinent were introduced by the British Army, it was later patronized and spread in education institutions through a joint effort of missionary schools and YMCA.

Muslim clergy mostly remained unaware of the social potential of sports. Cricket grew next to religion in subcontinent not with the support of religious missionaries but through the interventions of media and support of corporate sector that promoted cricket with religious fervour in every nook and corner of Indo-Pak.

As stated in Sunan Abi Daud and narrated by Uqbah Ibn Amir: I heard the Apostle of Allah say: Allah, most high, will cause three persons to enter Paradise for one arrow: the marker when he has a good motive in making it, the one who shoots it, and the one who hands it; so shoot and ride, but your shooting is dearer to me than your riding. The Apostle of Allah further said, if anyone abandoned archery after becoming an adept trough distaste for it, it is a blessing he has abandoned; or he said: for which he has been ungrateful.

"Teach your sons the art of swimming, sharp shooting and horseback riding" said Hazrat Omar the second Caliph of Islam. The importance of organized sport was realized in Islam in medieval times as it helped them to do well in other areas of life, such as war, leadership, and business. Archery was very popular as a sport amongst Turks and Mongols and riders use to demonstrate their skills before the Sultan of Ottoman and foreign visitors.

Throughout the twentieth century, Muslim countries have been involved in international athletics events and have achieved some success. The Organisation of the Islamic conference established the Islamic Solidarity Games as a means of encouraging cooperation among Muslim states. The first Islamic games were held in 1980 in Izmir, Turkey and included both men's and women's events from nine countries including Pakistan. It was decided that next Islamic games would be held in Saudi Arabia in 1983 but it is sad to note that the games never took place again. However, Islamic Women games were held in 1993, 1997, and 2001 in Tehran with the whole hearted cooperation of Iran.

Lida Fariman who competed in 1992 and 1996 Olympics as a shooter in the traditional Islamic robe and hijab and Manije Kazmi who competed in 2000 Olympics in traditional Iranian clothing and Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria who won the gold medal at Barcelona games are few success stories of Muslim women in international sports. Beside women the three Muslim athletes who helped promoting the cause of Islam world wide are Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon of basketball and the all time famous world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

The clergy in subcontinent however restricted itself to conventional methods of 'tableegh' and did not try the modern tools like sport which are more popular and easily acceptable amongst the youth. The recent trend of roping-in the cricketers for promoting that, to my mind were orthodox and not well thought, that met resistance from different quarters because of vested interests, external pressures and poor packaging of the product.

In the absence of finer understanding of the subject and their inability to understand the social potential of sports as a vehicle of spreading the message of Islam amongst the youth, the golden opportunity was missed by the myopic clergy who were unable to conceive a strategy of "Muscular Islam" as done by protestant Christians. Never the less they are not the only ones to blame as the government and other stake holders including sports federations and boards also remain clueless about the use of sport as a vehicle of tapping the youth for a larger social change in the country.

Had we seriously thought and understood the true potential of sport and applied this powerful tool it in a holistic manner, the youth of Madaris would have been the true champions and representatives of religion and sports, thus spreading the true message of Allah's last apostle based on peace and social justice as visible and acceptable icons of the society.

Aamir Bilal is a trained coach sdfsports@gmail.com