Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
My grandmother has followed cricket for sixty years, and last month she sat beside me through a BGMI final. On screen, four young men in matching jerseys hunched over their phones, headsets on, faces lit blue. The commentator was nearly hoarse. When a squad from a small town in Assam survived to the end, she clapped. Then she asked me whether this was really a sport.
The usual objection is that nobody sweats. I find this less convincing than it sounds. Shooting is an Olympic event, and the Olympic movement recognises chess, yet neither asks much of the lungs. They test steadiness and judgement. What a good BGMI squad trains is of the same kind: reflexes, the memory of every ridge on a map, and the harder skill of four people deciding in half a second whether to fight or slip away. Teams keep fixed practice hours and employ coaches, and a player whose form dips is dropped, as in any cricket side.
Yet there is one difference I cannot argue away. No one owns football. Boys in a village can mark goalposts with two slippers and play by the same rules as the World Cup. BGMI belongs to a company. It can redraw the map or weaken a favourite weapon in a single update. The company decides who may hold a tournament, and no event goes ahead without its sanction. Indian players learnt how fragile this is in 2022, when the game was blocked for months.
So my answer to my grandmother was a cautious yes. The players, I said, are athletes in every way that matters: discipline, nerve, teamwork. The game itself is still a product. She nodded, though I suspect she mostly wanted the remote back for the evening match.
The word ‘sanction’, as used in the passage, means:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → official permission
Here sanction means official permission.
- The passage says the company “decides who may hold a tournament”. Then it adds that no event goes ahead without its sanction.
- So an event can take place only if the company allows it. Example: The school trip to Shimla needs the sanction of the principal.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: a penalty for breaking a rule — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the other meaning of sanction, often used for countries. It does not fit a company allowing events. Example: Many countries put trade sanctions on the nation that broke the treaty.
Option 3: a formal agreement between two sides — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of pact. Example: The two neighbours signed a pact to share the cost of the new gate.
Option 4: close watch over the work of others — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of supervision. Example: The children painted the wall under the supervision of their art teacher.