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Mihir Bose

The Spirit of the Game: How Sport Made the Modern World Hardcover – 19 Jan. 2012

by Mihir Bose (Author)

3.5 7 ratings

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The spirit of the game was first nurtured on the playing fields of the English public school, and 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 and the games they played. Today, sport is dominated by corruption, money, celebrity and players who are willing to dive in the box if it wins them a penalty. Yet, we still believe and 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 and was at the heart of cold war diplomacy. Prime Ministers, princes and 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 and in this book he tells the story of how Sport has lost its original spirit and how it has emerged in the 20th century to become the most powerful political tool in the world. With examples and 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 and 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; and who really sold football out. Praise for Mihir Bose: 'Mihir Bose is India's CLR James.' Simon Barnes, The Times. 'Mihir's insider knowledge is unsurpassed' David Welch. 'His Olympic contacts are second to none. He knows everybody.' Sue Mott.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Constable
Publication date

19 Jan. 2012
Dimensions

16.1 x 4.4 x 24 cm
ISBN-10

184901504X
ISBN-13

978-1849015042
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Product description

Review

This is a fascinating history of the origins and transformation of sport from a pastime to a business. Mihir Bose is the perfect mixture of dedicated historian, meticulous investigative journalist and an observer who has never lost his view that sport matters only because it has a meaning beyond money and celebrity. --Sir Michael Parkinson

Mihir Bose has covered the sports-politics-business nexus for almost 30 years. His hugely ambitious new book examines not only how sport has become big business but also how this change has altered the original concept of sporting spirit . . . Mr Bose s research is wide and deep, and his prose bright and clear. He has wonderfully illuminated the rise and fall of the sporting spirit.--Simon Kuper, FT

A readable account of sport's tortuous journey from simple hobby to global behemoth.--Chris Maume, Independent

It s a huge undertaking and Bose . . . knows his stuff.--Metro

Excellent new book.--Choice Magazine

It s a huge undertaking and Bose, as you would expect from the BBC Sports editor, know his stuff.-- Metro

Wonderfully rich in historical detail and anecdote. --Ed Smith, Spectator

The Book is full of fascinating detail, told with exuberance and learning. It is a superbly entertaining read.--Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph

Comprehensive, perceptive, well-informed.--Simon Redfern, Independent on Sunday.

Packed with fascinating stories.--We Love This Book

Bose's impressive book collates a vast amount of detail. --Evening Standard

Mihir Bose has covered the sports-politics-business nexus for almost 30 years. His hugely ambitious new book examines not only how sport has become big business but also how this change has altered the original concept of sporting spirit . . . Mr Bose s research is wide and deep, and his prose bright and clear. He has wonderfully illuminated the rise and fall of the sporting spirit. --Simon Kuper, FT

Book Description

How sport lost its Corinthian spirit, and why big business and politicians jumped on the band wagon.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Constable (19 Jan. 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 184901504X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1849015042
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.1 x 4.4 x 24 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 522,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 5,427 in Cultural Studies
- 15,808 in General Sports, Hobbies & Games

Customer reviews:
3.5 7 ratings

About the author

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Mihir Bose

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Mihir Bose is an award-winning journalist and author. He writes and broadcasts on social and historical issues and sport for a range of outlets including the BBC, Financial Times, Evening Standard and Irish Times. He has written more than 30 books. They include histories: of Bollywood, Indian cricket, India post Independence, and Silver, the man who spied for five countries during the Second World War, which is being made into a film; and biographies: of Michael Grade and the Indian nationalist Subhas Bose (no relation).

Mihir was the BBC’s first Sports Editor, the first non-white to become a BBC Editor. He moved to the BBC after 12 years at the Daily Telegraph where he was chief sports news correspondent. Before that he worked for the Sunday Times for 20 years. He has contributed to nearly all the major UK newspapers and presented programmes on radio and television.

Mihir’s honorary doctorate from Loughborough University was awarded for his outstanding contribution to journalism and the promotion of equality. He has won several awards: business columnist of the year, sports news reporter of the year, sports story of the year and the Silver Jubilee Literary award for his History of Indian Cricket.

Mihir has recently been appointed to English Heritage’s Blue Plaques Panel. He is a former chairman of the Reform Club. He lives in London with his wife Caroline.

Customer reviews

3.5 out of 5

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GeorgeT

The Spirit of the Game

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 12 May 2012

Verified Purchase

A very comprehensive and well researched piece of work, a must for all PE/Sport students who need to look at the place sport has in, and how it has shaped, modern society.
The early chapters do feel a little 'too studious' and are a little 'heavy' in places, but they are still an enjoyable read.
It is only when you 'get into' the latter parts of the book -the 1936 games; the political significance attached to sport; the role of commercialism/ sponsorship etc... that the book, for me at least, really came alive and had real significance to modern sport and the world we live in.
Mihir Bose is an excellent reporter - concise and insightful, and this is reflected in the book as a whole.
A must in Olympic (or should that be Jubilympic) year for any serious scholar of modern sport and society.

One person found this helpful

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tinpanhead

Distinctly Average

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 22 November 2012

Verified Purchase

If you have read very few sports books and want a general overview of key events of the last 100 years then this is for you.

If you have read around a bit then you will soon realise that this feels like a pulling together of an authors research neatly summarised rather than anything insightful in its own right.

It reads very easily but offers nothing new.

500 odd pages read and nothing new learnt.

Average. Very average.

One person found this helpful

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Shliben

Excellent meticulously researched book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 19 April 2012

This is a fascinating and detailed book on the effect of politics on sport and how sport progressed from Tom Brown's Schooldays to the modern world.
If you want to understand the UK's position in sport today and why it is where it is now this will give you the historical background.

One person found this helpful

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C. Ball

Thorough and exhaustively researched, but it lagged a little for me...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 October 2012

I started out really enjoying this book, but it started to drag about two thirds in and I have to confess I largely skim read from there on.

The premise is certainly interesting enough - tracing how sport has developed from being at first nothing more than a form of physical exercise, through the Arnold/Coubertin ideal of sport as a form of morality, embued with a meaning and nobility all of its own, on into the modern day. He covers a fascinating array of sports, from football and cricket, tennis, Formula 1, snooker, the Olympics - but sometimes the transitions from a discussion of one sport to another is a little jarring, and the segues aren't always entirely clear.

Nowadays the idea of sport simultaneously represents the best and worst of mankind, where the ideas of 'playing the game', 'fair play', 'not the winning but the taking part' sit very uneasily alongside sport as a money-making enterprise, a business, a commodity to be bought and sold. It was when Bose starts talking about the business aspects of sport that he lost me. The tangle of politics, backroom deals, business ventures and financial entanglements just bogged down the text, and I found it all a real slog to get through.

However, those who are perhaps more interested in the politics and economics may find it fascinating; my own interest has always been more historical, so I found the sections on Thomas Arnold and Coubertin's establishment of the Olympics especially interesting.

One person found this helpful

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Helena Lendrum

A great history of sport for sports and non-sports people

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 February 2012

I very much enjoyed reading about how organised sport started on the playing fields of Rugby when it was all about fair play. Then sport became international with the Olympics at the turn of the 19th century. Gambling accelerated the growth of sport, the British spread sport through their empire, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin all used sport to promote their dictatorships. Then came adidas, Bernie Ecclestone, ping pong diplomacy and so on until the modern day where sport is big business. But what happened to the spirit of the game? This book is fascinating read.

4 people found this helpful

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The Spirit of the Game: How Sport Made the Modern World Hardcover – 19 Jan. 2012

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Mihir Bose

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