Sport isn't life and death

Nirmal Shekar, writing in The Hindu, remarks about the fault of taking cricket too seriously, arguing that the purpose of sport - to provide joy - is defeated if the hype over victory and defeat isn't overcome.

Before it began, the second Test of the ongoing India-Australia series was termed pivotal, a do-or-die match that could well decide the destination of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Give yourself some time, perhaps a year or two, look back and then let me know what this do-or-die was all about.

We so readily employ all sorts of scary metaphors (war, death, etc.) in sport simply because of our vacuousness when viewing athletic activity in the larger context of life.