When the second leg of Pakistan’s first-round 2018 World Cup qualifier against Yemen in Lahore was postponed 14 hours before kickoff last month, there was widespread depression in a corner room of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) House.

The marketing and media team of the country’s football governing body had been working hard for a month before the fixture, promoting and engaging football fans in the country to come and support the Pakistan national team as they looked to overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first leg.

But on the very same day the Yemen team arrived in Lahore, twin bombings took place in churches in the city’s Youhanabad area. The resulting unrest saw the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) postpone the game, which was later moved to Bahrain.

It may seem that international sporting activity in Pakistan came to a halt following the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 but there have been football, squash, snooker, cycling, hockey and boxing tourneys among others that have been bringing foreign teams and players to Pakistan throughout this time

“It would’ve been a turning point for Pakistan football,” PFF marketing and media manager Shahid Khokar rued. “Never before had we seen so much interest amongst local fans for the national team.”

But there was relief that at least the Yemen team wasn’t attacked or suffered any loss due to the prevailing unrest after the bombings.

That would have evoked memories of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in March, 2009 that saw international cricket leave the country.

Zimbabwe’s tour of Pakistan in May will end that six-year long international cricket drought but few know that during that time there has been a steady stream of foreign players and teams in other sports coming to the country.

The postponement of the Yemen game also saw the qualifiers of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championships moved from the country to the UAE.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka during the SAFF Women’s Championship opener in Islamabad in Dec, 2014

But while international cricket teams have avoided coming to Pakistan, international football teams have been coming to the country.

Although rocked by the twin blows of the postponement of the Yemen game and AFC U-23 event, PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat hoped that international football will come back to the country sooner rather than later.

“Over the years, when the cricket teams weren’t coming, we portrayed the soft image of the country by regularly inviting foreign teams and holding international football matches in here,” Hayat told Images on Sunday.

“Hopefully the law and order situation will improve soon and we’ll see international football back in the country.”

In the last six years, Pakistan has played host to Bangladesh (2014 World Cup qualifier), Palestine (2011, 2014 for bilateral series) and Afghanistan (2014 friendly) but the best part came when the PFF successfully organised the eight-team South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women’s Championship in November last year.

Players of all South Asian countries were thoroughly pleased with the arrangements made and the highlight came when Asia’s footballing leadership came for the final match of the tournament.

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and secretary Alex Soosay came to Islamabad where they were joined by SAFF president Kazi Salahuddin, FIFA Executive Committee member and Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi and the Football Association of Malaysia chief and Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) chief Prince Tengku Abdullah.

“We want international football to come to Pakistan which is why we’ve made them the hosts of our U-23 Championship qualifiers,” Soosay had said then.

The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Boxing Tournament features several foreign boxers

Like the PFF, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) and the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) has also been actively hosting international teams and players over the last few years.

Since the Professional Squash Association (PSA) lifted the ban on Pakistan to host international players in April last year, the PSF has been active in organising two editions of the Bahria Town International Women’s Tournament in the last two years which has featured a number of international players.

This year’s final, three weeks ago, saw Pakistan star Maria Toorpakai Wazir beating South African top seed Siyoli Waters.

“I had a great time here. Pakistan hospitality was really first class and I felt like royalty! Hope they keep hosting women’s events,” Waters wrote on her Twitter account.

Last year, in October, the Chief of Air Staff International Championship, meanwhile, saw Egyptian Omar Abdul Meguid as the top seed while the Asian Masters event was held in 2012 that saw another Egyptian Ramy Ashour play an exhibition match.

That same year, in March, Pakistan hosted the Jubilee Insurance Seven-nation International Snooker Championship that saw then International Snooker and Billiards Federation (IBSF) world champion Hussein Vafaei Ayouri of Iran take part.

That event saw international snooker return to the country after a five-year gap and was followed by the Asian Snooker Championship in April-May 2013 and the Asian Snooker Team Championship in August last year.

More is to come this year with Pakistan having won bids two years ago to host the Asian 6-reds, masters, women’s and team World Cups.

British boxer Aamir Khan on his arrival at the Karachi airport

“We’ve been working hard for a long time to bring international snooker to come to Pakistan and we’re happy our efforts have yielded results,” PBSF chief Alamgir Shaikh told a news conference during the launch of the Asian Team Championships last year.

The Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF), too, has been active, organising several races featuring international cyclists over the years while in view of other international events, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) is also keen on bringing foreign teams and players to the country.

“International sport has returned to the country over recent years and hopefully Pakistan will soon see international tennis in the country,” PTF’s new chief Salim Saifullah Khan said when he took over in December last year.

Pakistan’s hockey fortunes have been on the wane in recent years but at least the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) did better than the PTF by organising a four-match friendship series with China in Lahore and Karachi in December 2011.

The Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF), too, wasn’t left far behind, organising the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament that drew competitors from across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Two editions of the tournament were held, the first in Karachi in January 2010 and the second in Islamabad in December 2011. The highlight of the events was the appearance as chief guest of British boxer of Pakistani descent, Aamir Khan.

The success of the tournaments prompted organiser Umer Toor and the World Boxing Council (WBC) to initiate a professional boxing league in the country but their plans have since fizzled out.

Pakistan’s Maria Toorpakai and South Africa’s Siyoli Waters at the 2015 Bahria Town International Women’s Squash Championship

“We had international boxers, coaches ready to come to Pakistan but we just couldn’t work out the plan with the local sports bodies,” said a dejected Umer last year.

Meanwhile, the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad also saw ‘international’ action on two and four wheels for which Turkish ladies Rallying champion Burcu Cetinkaya, Lebanon’s Abdo Feghali, widely regarded as the ‘King of Drift’, and German bike rider Chris Pfeiffer touched base in Pakistan.

“I feel really good in Pakistan,” Pfeiffer had said then. “The people are really nice here and very friendly and despite all I’ve heard about the country, I feel more than safe here.”

Exhibitions might not be competitive but the late Sindh Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah made an exceptional effort to bring international cricket back to Pakistan. In October 2012, an ailing Shah brought an International World XI featuring the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Ricardo Powell, Justin Kemp and Andre Nel to Karachi for two Twenty20 matches against a Pakistan Star XI at Karachi’s National Stadium.

“It’s high time to assess the situation here in Pakistan and convince the other cricket boards,” former Sri Lankan opener Jayasuriya had said. “It’s a big responsibility on the Pakistan Cricket Board [PCB] to push the other countries’ cricket boards because we came here and nothing happened.”

Shah had dubbed those games as the “first step in reviving international cricket in the country” but in following years the PCB has managed to have just one high-profile series on home soil. That was between Pakistan ‘A’ and Kenya — not always a crowd puller — in December last year.

The Zimbabwe series may end that international cricket drought, but we should not ignore that for sports fans in general, its only international cricket which has been missing in action over the last six years.

The writer is a member of staff

Twitter: @UmaidWasim

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 26th, 2015

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