After the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) is the second sporting body which has announced the premier league this last week. Lahore has been selected as venue for the league to be held in April next year.

The announcement was made by PKF secretary Rana Sarwar soon after successfully holding the first National Women Championship in Lahore last week.

Haider Ali Daud Khan, who represents business house Strawberry, will sponsor the kabaddi league.

Mr Sarwar says for the first edition no international player will be offered the contract to play for any team.

He says six teams namely Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad and Fata will be formed through auction of players.

This last week two badminton players of Pakistan earned laurel for the country by qualifying for the doubles final in the Nepal International Series, but they lost the all-important match to an Indian pair.

Rizwan Azam and Kashif Sulhari entered the final after beating Indian pair of M. Anilkumar Raju and Venkat Gaurav Prasad in the semifinals.

However, in the final the Indian pair of Arjun M.R and Ramchandran Shlok defeated Pakistani pair in the straight set. But even playing the doubles’ final is a big achievement as India is a dominating force in badminton at the Asian level.

Pakistan Badminton Federation secretary Wajid Ali, who remained national champion for more than 13 years, said the players showed a good spark in Nepal, but still lots of efforts were required to dominate the game at the international level.

The Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA) awaits a reply from the Sports Board Punjab (SBP) before announcing the 73rd Punjab Games.

The PbOA intends to hold the games from Dec 22, but so far it has not received any green signal from the SBP. A summary for Rs140 million has been sent to the provincial government to hold the games in collaboration with the PbOA.

The PbOA had in the past organized the Punjab and National Games with the financial assistance of the provincial government, but the practice had been in suspension for the last five years.

The cooperation among all stakeholders for the promotion of sports is essential to raise the standard of sports in the country.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2016