THE euphoria of Soccer World Cup held in Russia is now over. The world witnessed great scenes as people thronged the streets of Paris to celebrate France’s 4-2 triumph over Croatia in the final to claim their second world title in 20 years.

The French success has brought good fortunes for the winning squad as they rule the world for four years from hereon until the next showpiece event takes place at Qatar in 2022.

Pakistan, which had four world titles — hockey, cricket, squash, snooker — in its possession in 1994 was considered a sporting nation with a number of feats achieved by its sports-persons until then. And no doubt, country’s high performers will be remembered for their heroics for a long time to come.

Various Pakistan teams used to travel abroad frequently to compete in the global events besides playing host to foreign teams and players in high profile competitions that thoroughly entertained the sports loving crowds.

But all that came to an abrupt halt following the ghastly terror attack on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on March 3, 2009, near Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium that left eight people dead and half-a-dozen Lankan players injured.

Deterioration ensued in the field of sports for almost a decade as foreign teams and players refused to come to Pakistan citing security concerns, leaving the country in isolation.

The turmoil in sports was further augmented by the creation of government-backed parallel body of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). At least, a generation past their prime without donning Pakistan colours during that period.

Moreover, due to political mayhem in the metropolis and encroachments of stadia, the parents confined their children to homes that killed their energies and they took to mobile phones and computers as alternate source of recreation.

In the process, we’ve lost all the titles one by one and rankings of teams and players have slid drastically. We now cherish the golden era, the glories of Khaliq and Raziq, Byram and Munir Sadiq, Jahangir and Jansher, Imran, Miandad, Wasim and Waqar, Samiullah and Hasan Sardar, Yousuf and Asif, Aisam and Aqeel and a number of other sports celebrities.

Let’s start afresh, taking a cue from the enthralling Soccer World Cup final, with a pledge to sink our differences and again return to winning ways in the days to come.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018