In big blow, EU court rules bridge not sport
The players of cerebral games like bridge, chess and Go may feel insulted at such a narrow legal interpretation of physical activity.
Chennai: Bridge’s bid to become a mainstream sport suffered a body blow on Thursday as the European Court of Justice ruled that the card game isn’t a physical activity.
According to Mr Samanth, the verdict of the European Court of Justice will not have a great impact on bridge in India. “We aren’t worried too much because bridge is an established sport in India. It is on the list of priorities of the Union sports ministry. Bridge is part of the 2018 Asian Games. Railways and Income Tax recruit chess players through sports quota,” he said.
The official, however, admitted that the Federation’s job of taking bridge to the masses would become tough if it wasn’t considered a sport in India. “We are already in the mighty battle of overcoming the taboo associated with playing a card game in India. It’s definitely a game of skill. Although bridge is tailor-made for online, we aren’t aggressively promoting it in the cyberspace because we don’t want youngsters to get addicted to the game at the cost of their studies,” he added.
As chess, a more popular mind game, also faces the threat of being declared a non-sport, India’s first international master Manuel Aaron is hoping that his life-long passion will not face bridge’s fate in Europe. “Only a sound body will have a sound mind. I don’t like the separation of the body and the mind. Bridge and chess are challenging enough to be called sport,” he added.