The reason we love sports

I am and have been an ardent cricket fan since grade 2 or thee. Whenever I watch a cricket match, I want to shout and imitate the actions of the players. This process (or to be more accurate this madness) always makes me to think why do we love sports? It is to do with self-identification with players and catering to the need to nurture ego? Do we like to imagine ourselves as the players who are cheered, applauded in the ground? Is it to with the prime instinct to defeat someone and showing to the victory shout to others. In my personal opinion, sports are a perfect example of a crossroads at which humans are trapped in the process of evolution. If you take a look at the successful sportspeople and their signature celebration of their little moments, you will realise where I am heading! Players like to roar, dance or even flip: all these movements can be easily compared with the victory dances performed by the pre-hisotoric human being after a successful hunt. The difference between this traditonal barbaric stint and the modern day victory dance is the civilised framework or the set of rules that a player has to follow on playing the game.

     On the other hand, the self-identification migjt be another powerful feeling that connects us with players. In my personal experience, the moment I support a team or a team member, I tend to think like that player. The physiological factors that cause one to support a certain team or the concept of fanbase is also interesting research area. Apart from the factors like region, nationality ( this can be also illlustrated through diasporic supporters like fans who support India or Sri Lanka in Australis using cultural theories like immagined community or cultural citzenship), if the match is involved between teo neutral sides, i.e. a cricket Test match between Australia and Bangladesh, I tend to like the weaker team or the side which is the underdog. So, it will be also interesting to analyse the relationship between the personality trait and the types of sports and team one likes the most. Once again I have to stress that these areas are rarely researched areas and there might be thousands of avenues to conduct multiple studies from differnt research methodolgies. However, it is very unfortunate that there is no literature on sports (academically theorised perspectives on sports or media industry) or sports literature (reviews, novels, or any kind of literary work that focuses on sports as a theme or a technique or a literature  based on sports. It is sad that sports have been widely ignored to mere entertaintment source whereas its influences on philosphy or human condition might be immense.