KARACHI, May 27 The 12th Sindh Games, dubbed as the biggest spectacle of the province, returns to its birthplace Larkana where it explodes into action on Thursday with 1515 athletes vying for the Moenjodaro Trophy in 24 men's and 11 women's disciplines braving the persistent heat wave and power failure.

According to figures made available here, each of the five contingents — Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana — comprised 203 men and 100 women. Each contingent will be accompanied by 60 team officials - 42 men and 18 women. In addition, 48 men are accompanying every contingent for the traditional games which end on Sunday.Besides, a big team of technical officials will be on hand to conduct the games in a befitting way.

This is the third time the games are taking place at Larkana, the birthplace of Ms Benazir Bhutto, since its inception 23 years ago. The other occasion was in 1995.

The Sindh government will be spending approximately Rs10 million on hosting the games in collaboration with the Sindh Olympic Association (SOA).

If one goes by the statistics, Karachi, the capital of Sindh, has dominated the games right from its beginning. Athletes of the rural Sindh, particularly Hyderabad, have also caught the eye by giving a tough time to Karachi in some of the disciplines in the past.

Unfortunately, over the years neither the games have unearthed talented players nor it served any purpose in terms of records. The last games too, were organised hurriedly and left a bad impact.

The Karachi contingent, meanwhile, that left for Larkana on Wednesday morning by a fleet of nine buses reached late evening after covering the journey in over nine hours. An ugly situation occurred at the Sindh Sports Board Sports Complex, Nazimabad, when a number of technical officials also boarded the eight buses that were reserved for athletes.

However, the situation was brought under control when an additional bus was hired at the eleventh hour.

The Karachi contingent faced severe hardships as no official was assigned to receive them and help solve accommodation problems. The men were told to go to Pilot School while the girls were asked to stay at Degree Girls College but to no avail, an official told Dawn when reached for comments.

According to reports, contingents of other regions have also

reached the destination. The sportspersons have been provided accommodation in different schools.Larkana, according to officials, is getting a facelift. Roads are in dilapidated conditions because of carpeting and there's dust all around.

Sindh Sports Minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, who also heads the SOA, will inaugurate the games. The opening ceremony is due to take place at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Stadium at 6.00pm.

Disciplines

Men Athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, body building, boxing, cycling, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, karate, netball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, throwball, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.

Women Athletics, badminton, basketball, handball, hockey, karate, netball, softball, table tennis, throwball and volleyball.

Traditional games Kodi Kodi, malakhara, shooting and wanjhwatti.