JAKARTA: Pakistan need to ditch their traditional approach of training wrestlers on mud floors if they are to excel at international level, national coach Muhammad Anwar said on Sunday.

Anwar was speaking at the Asian Games in Jakarta, where two of Pakistan’s three wrestlers lost in the first round on the opening day of competition.

Pakistan have done ‘zero work’ to help their wrestlers, Anwar said, leaving them trailing their competitors — notably arch-rivals India, who switched to training on mats long ago.

“India have done a lot of work on wrestling. It’s a big country with lot of funds. While Pakistan has done zero work for sports and wrestling,” the former Olympic wrestler said. “After partition in 1947 we were way ahead of India in wrestling and our domination continued till 1952. But after that wrestling was fought on mats and India took to it while Pakistan couldn’t.”

Inam Butt became Pakistan’s latest wrestling sensation after winning the country’s only gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in April.

However Inam, who won in the 86kg category on the Gold Coast, is one of just a few Pakistani wrestlers to make their mark on the international stage.

“Wrestling has not been promoted well in Pakistan and as a result has lagged behind,” Anwar said, adding that Pakistan could do with a star like India’s two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar.

“Sushil is a very good wrestler but I personally take inspiration from all the Russian wrestlers who are a name in themselves. They have a knack of producing world champions,” Anwar added with a smile.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2018