In plain words
Little by little this addiction grew worse still, and in China and the countries of West Africa they began to gamble even with their wives and children at stake. These gambling games were the root cause of China's fall. The height of it all was in the nineteenth century, when the gambling called cricket grew beyond measure. A single person would stake sixty million dollars in this gambling called cricket. A million means ten lakhs; sixty million means six hundred dollars; six hundred dollars means sixty crores in value in our Bhārata. Besides this, in the match called football they would spend even more money. In recent times, in 1947, at a football match in England, they scattered currency notes over the whole ground. In this way, games that came into being for entertainment have all taken a form that brings grief. Today all games have turned into a field of business. Little children all take up games like cricket, badminton and football with this aim: “We too must become great players and earn lakhs in plenty.” In truth these games came into being to shape the body to health and the mind to joy. Where did this game of cricket first begin? The match began in 1877, in Australia, in a village called Melbourne. In those days its aims were different. In the games of those days a grace shone out. They played the game keeping only the purpose of the game in view. That alone they took to be the true fruit. Even when they could not win, they rejoiced as though they had won. That is, they held that following the right order was itself the victory. The aim of games today, if you ask what it is: to defeat the opponent by any means! However they break the methods and rules of the game, it does not matter.