The history of sports can be traced back to the late 17th century in England. During the Restoration, Puritans banned traditional pastimes and drove them underground, leaving only organized games to survive. However, in the 18th century, the Marylebone Cricket Club began to lead the way with the development of organized games. The Marylebone Cricket Club introduced cricket to England in 1787 and helped to develop the game’s structure and rationale for competition.
Most sports have a set of rules and customs that ensure fair competition and a consistent adjudication of winners. In many cases, the winners are determined through the physical events that take place, but there are also subjective measures that determine the winners. For example, a person’s speed, strength, and agility may be measured by how well he or she performs in various types of games, and a good technique in playing a particular game improves the player’s skills.
Organized sports often include records of performance. Results of popular sports are reported widely in sport news. Non-participants also get a lot of entertainment from sports, which draws crowds to venues. In fact, according to Kearney, the global sporting industry was worth $620 billion in 2013.