HOCKEY is our national game but has long been overshadowed by cricket. The Pakistan Super League (PSL) captivated the nation when its final was recently played in Karachi.

Whenever we talk about cricket, we generally speak of its positive aspects. We say, for example, that cricket is a platform where people of multiple ethnicities forget their rivalries and become one. This is because we own the game. But there is more to it that we fail to see amidst our tears of joy and grief for matches won and lost.

Do we realise how our inclination towards cricket has deprived other sports of the opportunity to flourish? Instead of retorting ‘I don’t watch any sport except cricket because they don’t do well’, why don’t we analyse that it can equally be the other way around. We are not good at other sports because we don’t watch them.

Muhammad Waseem is Pakistan’s first-ever professional boxer to hold a World Boxing Council title. How many of us went to welcome him at the airport when he brought this glory home? When achievements go unacknowledged and defeats unprotected, downfall becomes inevitable. Waseem is planning to retire as our sponsors are too busy promoting cricket.

A video of Pakistan’s celebrated Olympian hockey goalkeeper, Mansoor Ahmad, went viral on the social media. He is currently hospitalised in Karachi for a heart ailment. The video failed to excite any reaction as the public was occupied with the PSL.

Fair enough, we craved international cricket for almost a decade. But it should not blind us to our collective responsibility to look after all our national heroes. Love it or loathe it, our out-of-proportion love for cricket is a major stumbling block for other sports.

Vasdev

Mithi

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2018