LAHORE: Expressing his surprise over Pakistan Sports Board’s decision to exclude badminton from the national contingent which will represent the country at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) president Wajid Ali on Saturday said all the arrangements had been made for the badminton squad’s participation at the July 28-Aug 8 gala in Britain.

“The PSB organised a 15-day training [camp] of Pakistan’s badminton team in Lahore for the [Commonwealth] Games. Moreover, all the four players and their coach had obtained their accreditation card as well as visas, and were all set to leave for Birmingham. But the PSB has decided to exclude badminton, reportedly on the pretext that the squad has no chance of winning medals [in Birmingham],” Wajid told Dawn.

“If the entire sporting world follows the same formula which was adopted by the PSB [to exclude the badminton squad] then there is no need to send around 15,000 athletes to participate in the games as only 500 [potential] medal winners are enough to go and compete for the medals,” Wajid added.

The PBF had selected Muard Khan, Hafiz Irfan (male), Mahoor Shahzad and Ghazala Siddiqi (female) for the Commonwealth Games, and all of whom attended the Lahore camp.

“We are trying to request the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) to help the PBF in sending the players [to Birmingham] as it will give an opportunity to them to hone their skills.

“Yes, we have no chance for medals but is the whole [sporting] world sending athletes for the medals [only]?” asked Wajid, who ruled the national circuit for more than 12 years as national champion from 1990s to around mid 2000s.

While regretting that the POA had not responded yet to PBF’s request, Wajid said still he was repeating request to the POA, insisting “it is not appropriate to drop the players when the accreditation cards had been issued to them and visas had also been obtained”.

To a question, Wajid said no reason was given to the PBF by the PSB for dropping the players as badminton was the only sport, which was excluded from the national contingent.

According to Wajid, the PSB did not organise any training camp for badminton players during the last five years, except for holding a 15-day camp in Lahore.

“Yes, medals should be the target of the PSB. But did the PSB chalked out any comprehensive training programme for athletes in the past five years to bring the players at the level from where they can earn medals at these top-level international contests [like Commonwealth Games]?” he asked.

“If the PSB expects the athletes to bring home medals after holding a 15-day camp then it is not possible.”

It is a hard fact that almost all the national sports bodies in Pakistan -- other than cricket -- were running their affairs with limited resources since it is not easy to get sponsors.

It may be mentioned that the PSB had only cleared a contingent of 61 persons, including 42 players (39 males and three females) besides 19 officials, all men.

The Pakistan women cricket team’s entire expenses are to be borne by the PCB, being the richest sport body of the country.

Pakistan is fielding three male players each in athletics and boxing with one official apiece. The biggest share in the contingent is of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) comprising 18 players and three officials.

Interestingly, the PSB on Friday also denotified the PHF, but on the other hand it has cleared the sport’s biggest contingent for Birmingham.

Only three officials are going with the national hockey team, which has some chances to finish at the podium.

Others players and officials of different disciplines which are part of the contingent include: judo (two male players, one male official), squash (two male and female players each and one officials), weightlifting (three players, one officials), wrestling (six players, one officials), swimming (one player, no officials), para athletic (one female player, one official) and table tennis (one player, one official).

Five officials and three guests, all males, are also included in the contingent.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2022