Pakistan origin British boxer Amir Khan arrived in Lahore with his family for a four-day trip this week.

It is the first time he came to Pakistan with his wife and daughter. Amir has no busy schedule in Lahore but his presence has brightened the chances of the inauguration of a boxing academy to be built in the Nishtar Sports Complex after his name.

The Sports Board, Punjab, has promised to Amir to build a boxing academy in a gymnasium of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). Work on the gymnasium began in 2006 and then the Punjab government interrupted, saying the land of the gym did not belong to the federal government. The interruption stopped thee work half way making the gymnasium a monument of ill planning and the wastage of precious national exchequer.

Now it is reported that the land of the Nishtar Sports Complex has been given to the Sports Board, Punjab. The federal government has also allowed the provincial government to complete the half-built gym and take its control. The federal government has also agreed to hand over its two practice halls, currently under the custody of the National Sports Coaching Centre, a regional office of the Pakistan Sports Board, to the Amir Khan Academy.

Amir will also meet some promising Pakistani boxers in Lahore. Both the government and Pakistan Boxing Federation should prepare a comprehensive programme to take advantage of the experience of Amir to prepare world class boxers.

The pitches of the Lahore City Cricket Association (LCCA) ground may not help produce good quality cricket in the upcoming season as no fresh soil was laid there this year. For years, the LCCA had been laying fresh soil on pitches before the start of the monsoon season.

The LCCA ground is the only venue in Lahore, which the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) uses regularly to host first and non-first class matches throughout the cricketing season. The Bagh-i-Jinnah ground is also a first-class venue but the PCB avoids to reserve it so often because of its high cost. The LCCA ground also needs other infrastructures such as grass mowing machines and pitch covers.

The newly-built international swimming pool in Lahore, first of its kind in Lahore, will be inaugurated on August 14.

The recruitment of staff has yet to be done to make the pool operational. Hopefully, this time, the SBP will meet the tentative date of inauguration. Work on the pool started in 2008 and at that time its estimated cost was Rs160 million. Due to delay in the completion, the cost touched around Rs400 million.

Two officials, one each of FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, visited Lahore last week to determine the genuine representative of the Pakistan Football Federation. Two groups, one headed by Faisal Saleh Hayat and the other by Zahir Ali Shah, are infighting for the presidency of the federation and they both have made their own groups consisting of the members of the PFF Congress.

It is feared Pakistan’s membership may be suspended from FIFA, if both groups do not resolve their issues soon.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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