The Sports Board Punjab showed a soft corner for the provincial sports associations last week by releasing their annual grants after a lapse of eight years.

It is not enough, the sports board, in yet another surprise move also decided to hold the 72nd Punjab Games with the collaboration of the Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA) in September this year. The games are being delayed for the last many years as both the PbOA and the Sports Board Punjab were not on the same page. But the sudden move has come as a pleasant surprise for everyone involved. If the previous provincial government of Shahbaz Sharif was not in favour of releasing the annual grant of the associations, induction of Shaukat Javed in the provincial caretaker set-up as home and sports minister brought this sudden change in the board’s attitude.

It may be mentioned here that former IGP Shaukat Javed is also chairman of the Pakistan Federation Baseball whose Punjab chapter is also a victim of the sports board’s policy of not getting the annual grant for the last eight years. Though these are good steps, one thing is clear that nothing in the SBP is going by the book. There is no solid policy of the board, which allows it either to release or not the annual grant to the associations. Similarly, there is no hard and fast policy, which binds the SBP to cooperate with the PbOA in holding the Punjab Games. And now, no change in any rule was made to pave the way for the issuance of the grants but just a change in the mood of the higher-ups made it possible. No one can guarantee that if the same cooperation between the two will continue next year or not as it all depends on the mood of the higher-ups.

A meeting between the SBP and the PbOA was held at the former’s office under the chairmanship of SBP Director General Aamir Jan and the decisions were taken in this meeting. Every provincial sports association’s official received a cheque of Rs100,000 each as token of grant and they would also get Rs1m each next month as annual grant. Though the amount is peanuts but it would be useful for running the officers of provincial sports associations.

The dates for the 72nd Punjab Games are proposed from Sept 5 to 10. For the last seven years, the PbOA has been demanding the sports board to cooperate with it in holding the games but in vain.

Anyhow these are the good steps taken by the Sports Board Punjab but still there is an urgent need to make amendments to the board’s constitution to ensure that everything goes by the book in future. Recently, the board has given Rs50m to the Punjab Squash Association besides spending millions of rupees on holding the Inter-Division Boxing Championships and now it is gearing up to hold the inter-division football tournament for U-15. But what is the fault of other sports like athletics, hockey, badminton, tennis, table tennis, basketball, baseball and swimming as they did not get any such big amount or activity.

Lahore will see two important activities in sports next week. A short training camp of the Pakistan cricket team is being held at the Gaddafi Stadium to prepare the team for tour of Zimbabwe starting from June 28. The national selection committee has also announced the 16 member team for the tour. The camp will conclude on June 28 the day when the team will leave for Zimbabwe. The cricket camp will start on Monday and the same day an international squash tournament will also commence at the Punjab Squash Complex. Hopefully, some foreign players will also be in action in this US $10,000 prize money tournament. So far no foreign player’s entry was made by the organisers. The international squash event is being held in Lahore after a lapse of two years. Though foreign players have been participating in the tournaments being held in Islamabad, they are still reluctant to visit Lahore because of their security fears.

Ajunior tennis championship concluded at the Punjab Lawn Tennis courts at Bagh-i-Jinnah last week. A good number of youngsters appeared in the event in different age groups. In Under-16, Ahmed Kamil of Lahore won the title while Bilal Asim clinched the top slot in Under-14. Shaeel Tahir and Ehtesham Arif earned top position in the Under-14 doubles. Shaeel Tahir and Bilal Asim won the Under-12 final.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2018