This last week the Sports Board Punjab (SBP) came to the rescue of the cash-strapped Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) and released necessary funds to resume the national hockey training camp in Lahore.

The PHF had shut down its training camp in Islamabad due to paucity of funds. The camp was set up for the training of the hockey team for tours of Australia and South Korea as part of preparation for Rio Olympics-2016 qualifying round which will be held in Belgium in mid of this year.

Soon after an announcement made by SBP Director-General Usman Anwar about the grant, the PHF heaved a sigh of relief and announced resuming the training camp in Lahore next week.

It is a matter of great concern that hockey, which has earned 65 gold, silver and bronze medals for the country and raised Pakistani flag in many countries, is missing the real patronage of the government and business houses.

The government and the PHF should find ways to avoid such a situation in the future.

Last week a 30-year-old middle order batsman Azhar Ali was named as 14th captain of Pakistan cricket team. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed Azhar as skipper for the one-day side in place of Misbahul Haq, who has retired from this format of the game after leading Pakistan in the World Cup-2015.

The PCB surprised many as Azhar has not been considered even as ODI player for the last two years despite having quite a satisfactory average in the short version of the game.

He has scored 452 runs in 14 ODIs at a decent average of 41.09. His 41.31 average in Test matches is also quite good.

It is learnt his conduct and attitude, which is similar to Misbah, has played a major role in naming him as captain by the PCB. Now Azhar has to prove with his performance and leadership qualities that he is the right man for the job.

Lahore has produced first three captains of Pakistan -- A.H Kardar, Oval hero and fast bowler Fazal Mahmood and renowned wicketkeeper/opening batsman Imtiaz Ahmad.

Besides the three greats, Javed Burki and Majid Khan, who were not born in Lahore as they were migrated from India, were also made captains for short periods.

Finally, Lahore produced the most successful captain Imran Khan whose record of 14 Test victories was broken by Misbah. After Imran, one of the greatest all rounders Wasim Akram and genuine wrist batsman Saleem Malik also led Pakistan cricket team.

But their careers had a stigma of match-fixing as both of them were penalized by one-man judicial commission for the dirty act. Sarfraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir and Abdul Razzaq also led Pakistan in couple of ODI matches as makeshift captains.

Ramiz Hasan Raja, Aamir Sohail, Muhammad Yousaf and Salman Butt also had the honour of leading the Pakistan cricket team, but Salman spoiled his career in the spot-fixing scam.

The PSB approved a 102 kanals of land for the construction of a sports stadium in Kotla Arab Ali Khan, a suburban area of Gujrat district.

A gymkhana and a swimming pool will be the major parts of the sports complex. The project will be completed at a cost of Rs70 million.

Though providing sports facilities in the far-flung area is a good step, it should also be the responsibility of the government to make the sports complex functional soon after its completion.

In Lahore, the projects of swimming complex and indoor gymnasium had been completed last year, but they are yet to be functional.

Meanwhile, the SBP has also announced that it will hold international sports festival from May 9 to 18 in several cities of Punjab.

Hockey, kabaddi, wrestling, handball, rugby, mix-martial arts, football, polo, cricket, weightlifting, blind cricket, pentathlon, judo, hill marathon and other games will be included in the sports festival.

Elections of the Punjab Football Association (PFA) are being held in Lahore next week. The elections are of significant importance as Punjab government-backed MPA Ali Haider Noor Khan Niazi is one of the candidates for the post of president.

Reports are that the government is also interested in supporting retired Captain Muhammad Safdar, the son-in-law of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in the upcoming PFF elections against current president Faisal Saleh Hayat, a noted political figure. The PFF elections are due in July this year.

Another PML-N man Arshad Khan Lodhi is the incumbent president of the PFA.

Though it is the constitutional right of everyone to contest the elections, getting government support or intervention will prove fatal for Pakistan as FIFA has strict rules against such practices of the government. The FIFA had already suspended memberships of many countries for this reason.

Pakistan could hardly avoid the suspension from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the recent past as the government had involved itself in getting his hand-picked body of the POA recognized from the IOC.

Those who are promoting Noor and then Safdar with the help of government machinery will only earn a bad name for the PML-N and the prime minister.

PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat has reportedly appointed his brother-in-law Syed Nayyar Haider as election commissioner which is not morally a correct decision.

The PFF should appoint a neutral election commissioner or else the elections may not get legal and moral validity.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2015

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