Sportspeople in Pakistan, barring cricketers, lack opportunities to develop a brilliant career. It is, however, heartening to see that several players, including women, are spending their energies and resources to excel in different sports. One such example is rising swimmer Mishael Ayesha Ayub, who has represented the country at the international level.

Mishael is lucky to have earned a sponsorship for a 12-day training in Spain in June.

According to the 2016 national ranking, she stands at the second place. She was declared the best swimmer in Pakistan Under-16 championship in 2017 with six gold medals for breaking five new national records. She also participated in the South Asian Games-2016 as youngest team member when she was 13. She has also represented Pakistan in FINA World Championship Budapest-2017, broke national record in 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly besides earning a bronze medal in relay in the Islamic Games-2017 in Baku. She also bagged four gold and two silver medals in the National Open Championship in 2016.

Mishael says though the period of the training in Spain is not longer one, it will help her analyse if her training is meeting the international standards.

“My coach Ghulam Murtaza will also with me so that he can continue teaching me according to the latest coaching methods,” Mishael says.

She is inspired by her grandfather, Mazhar Ali Khan, a progressive journalist. The late Khan also represented Pakistan in swimming decades ago.She says though in the world over it is not a problem for any player to continue their studies side by side their sport career. “I don’t know why this problem exists in Pakistan,” she says.

She says she is studying in ‘O’ levels equally giving time to both her studies and the swimming training.

“It’s unfortunate that in our country many players leave either their education or the sport at ‘O’ levels,” she says.

She says though Lahore is far behind in swimming facilities as compared to Karachi, the city has produced a good number of talented swimmers, topping the national ranking. The newly-built swimming pool by the Sports Board of Punjab is also a good addition to city’s infrastructure.

“The government should patronise athletes until they get any international status as after that, it’s easy for them to get sponsors,” she says.

Mishael says earning a bronze medal in the team event of the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku last year was her biggest achievement so far and now she expects her selection in the Pakistan contingent for the upcoming Asian Games being held in Indonesia in August-September this year.

She, however, complains that some Pakistani origin swimmers in other countries are selected by the Pakistan Swimming Federation (PSF) to represent the country at the international level, which shows the PSF has no trust in the local talent.

“It’s unfair to drop the local talent for it has no facilities on a par with their foreign compatriots. It may disappoint them to leave the sports,” she conclude.

Following the footprints of the Pakistan Super League by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the Pakistan Kabaddi Federation (PKF) also came up with a similar league in Lahore the last week.

Up to 10 teams are participating in the Kabaddi league. The big event has, so far, failed to attract a good crowd. Traditional kabaddi is quite popular in Pakistan, especially in Punjab, however, the league is being held on mat, following the circle style of the kabaddi. As the traditional kabaddi is not recognised at the world level, the circle style is important to earn achievements at international competitions.

PKF secretary Muhammad Sarwar says it is the first step to make the sport popular in Punjab. He says 10 foreign players are also taking part in the league and the next time more will be invited to the event. Players are from Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh. He says though the PKF also invited its Indian counterparts to the league, they were not responsive.

Supreme Court’s appointed election commissioner Advocate Ali Raza succeeded to hold elections for the Punjab Football Association (PFA) in Lahore last week. As expected, Sardar Navid, backed by the Faisal Saleh Hayat group, won the elections, defeating the Rana Ashraf’s group, backed by Arshad Khan Lodhi. The holding of the elections must be a good development as now it is quite possible to put football’s affairs on a right track.

Now, Ali Raza will hold elections for the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and hopefully they will end the three and a half years long fight over the representatives of the PFF, which once led to suspend the membership of Pakistan at FIFA.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2018