The Spirit Of The Game

Product Description

The spirit of the game was first nurtured on the playing fields of the English public school, & in the pages of " Tom Brown's Schooldays"
- this Corinthian spirit was then exported around the world. The competitive spirit, the importance of fairness, the nobility of the gifted amateur seemed to sum up everything that was good about Britishness & the games they played. Today, sport is dominated by corruption, money, celebrity & players who are willing to dive in the box if it wins them a penalty. Yet, we still believe & talk about the game as if it had a higher moral purpose. Since the age of Thomas Arnold, Sport has been used to glorify dictatorships & was at the heart of cold war diplomacy. Prime Ministers, princes & presidents will do whatever they can to ensure that their country holds a major sporting tournament. Nelson Mandela saw the victory of the Rugby World Cup as essential to his hopes for the Rainbow Nation. Mihir Bose has lived his life around sport & in this book he tells the story of how Sport has lost its original spirit & how it has emerged in the 20th century to become the most powerful political tool in the world. It is presented with examples & stories from around the world including how the sport-hating Thomas Arnold become an icon; how a German manufacturer gave Jessie Owens a pair of shoes at the Berlin games of 1936 & went on to dominate the world of sport; how India stole cricket from the ICC; how an Essex car dealer become the most powerful man in Formula 1; &, who really sold football out.