March 02, 2008	Sunday	Safar 23, 1429

KARACHI, March 1: The historic Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), which has been the hub of sporting activities for decades, is the latest in line to be misused grossly and is just not serving its purpose for the youth.

The sports events at the century-old YMCA — which is located in front of the Governor’s House — have long been suspended due to a tussle between the warring factions and the training arena currently wears a deserted look.

However, an alarming increase in all the non-sporting activities at the premises including weddings, commercial festivals, parties etc have deprived the Karachiites, particularly the youth, of healthy activities and sports events.

Situated in close vicinity is the D. J. Science College sports ground which has also been used as a marriage garden rather holding athletic meets.

Within a radius of one kilometer from these two grounds lie the Railway stadium which too, wears a deserted look due to lack of proper maintenance. It is now being feared that the prized plot in the center of the city will soon be commercialised by the concerned department.

Then there is the Police Ground, housed inside the Police Headquarters on Garden Road, which has not been utilized for any sports activity for well over a decade now. All the four sports fields are situated in the region of (formerly) district south.

The suspension of sporting events at the YMCA has deprived scores of promising players in the adjoining areas from taking benefit of the training facilities avaiable there.

About a decade ago, both men and women used to thronged the YMCA every evening to improve their skills in hockey, track and field, basketball, badminton, tennis and martial arts.

The present generation may not be aware of the immense contribution YMCA made towards sports since the country’s inception. Apart from producing a number of stars who donned Pakistan colours, its cafeteria was also a famous meeting point of the then sports bigwigs.

It goes to the credit of YMCA that it honoured late former Olympians such as Habibur Rehman and Latifur Rehman by organising their joint benefit match in 1980. The stalwarts of yore were presented a cash prize of Rs 25,000 apiece.

This was preceded by a benefit match for the late hockey Olympian, P.P. Fernandes around 1978 and the then ailing hero was presented Rs 36,000. But those were the good old days.

The honorary coaches of all disciplines who remained associated with the institution for decades and kept the sports going deserve commendation and will be remembered for a long time to come.

Able men like Mohammad Khan, Abid Hussain, Masroor Ali Khan, Iftikhar Hussain, Vakil Nasir, Arshad Saleem, Michael Gomes, Joel Andrews, Kalimullah, Shabih Abbas, Josephine Alexander, Sultan Ahmed, Ghyasuddin, Mohammad Iqbal among others were committed people with tremendous passion for sports.

A word of praise is also due for the valuable support of dedicated people like George W. Das, Wilburn Bede, Sadiq Wahabuddin, Zafar J. Shakti, Riaz Ahmed and Jawaid Quddaosi who served the institution with zeal and zest.

It reminds the keenly contested athletic meets between Olympian Club (YMCA) and the Asian Club (Hockey Club Stadium) throughout the year and yielded fruitful results.

Veteran athlete Mohammad Talib, Prof. A. M. Farid, Prof. Abdul Latif Khokhar and Hamid Ali Ansari were at one time the backbone of Asian Club, not to forget the financial support from Mahmood Shaikh, the owner of Imperial Hotel.

The institution also served as a pipeline by providing Pakistan three prominent hockey goal-keepers in Shahid Ali Khan, Mansoor Ahmed and Ahmed Alam in addition to spearhead Mumtaz Haider.

All that is history now and the revival of sporting activities at the YMCA is nowhere in sight. However, the healthy activities at all the above venues could be restored if the governor takes a bit of interest in the matter and issues immediate directives in this regard.

“The YMCA sports committee is willing to take a fresh start provided the conditions become congenial,” senior official Shabih Abbas told Dawn.