SPORTS LAW ASSIGNMENT SACHINDHAR A.

SUMMARY ON “A PRIMER ON ‘SPORTS AND COMPETITION LAW INTERFACE’ IN

INDIA” Written by Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh

At the beginning of any debate on ‘sports law’ or ‘sports and law’, the discussion begins with the

definition of the term ‘sports’. Though, there are several definitions proposed by different

authors , the exact definition of ‘sports’ seems to be impossible; however, some common

elements of the existence of a recognizable organizational structure, rules, physical exertion and

competition needs to be present. The term ‘sport’ derives from the French-determined Middle

English verb sporten, to divert, and also the Latin term desporto, literally ‘to carry away’. The

emphasis is therefore on it being a distraction something that gives pleasure. The historical

evolution of sports can be traced back to the original Greek Olympics believed to have been held

in 686 BC. In India, history of sports can be traced back to the epic of Mahabharata which

narrates an incidence where a game called Chaturanga was played between two groups of

warring cousins Pandavas and Kauravas. Instances of kings going for hunting is well know, even

now hunting can be seen as the precursor of much of modern sport. Mr. Sachin Tendulkar is

awarded with the India’s highest civilian award, the

‘Bharat Ratna’. This sets the tone for this paper; now sports as a ‘profession’ may not be whisked

away. Sports as a ‘profession’ in India have moved from amateurism and calls for a serious

consideration both in terms of its regulation and legal requirements. The industry associations

have demanded to grant it as a status of ‘industry’ as it involves huge amount of investment and

flow of money, as has been observed by all of us in relation to IPL matches. This has given birth

to a new branch of law, i.e. the ‘sports law’ which is a development from ‘sports and law’ in

India. Though this development has long happened in other countries in the world, specifically in

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SPORTS LAW ASSIGNMENT SACHINDHAR A.K

European Union, in India the things are slowly holding the ground. There are several legal issues

that emerge in the context of sports like match fixing, doping, conflict of sports governing

bodies, contract of employment of players etc., however, the focus of the present paper is on the

‘sports and competition law interface’. India now has completely new competition legislation in

place in the form of Competition Act, 2002 which prohibits practices having adverse effect on

competition in markets in India, and the sports sector has not been spared from its application as

a market.