KARACHI, Nov 27: Women hockey and football players of the city welcomed the addition of a new ground, the First All Pakistan Women Hockey and Football Stadium, reserved specially for their sporting activities here on Tuesday.

“It is a great initiative on the part of the Sindh Sports Ministry,” Karachi women hockey team’s right fullback Asiya Khan told Dawn at the inauguration of the ground. “Grounds are normally not available for us whenever we need them since the priority in our country is always given to men’s sports. This initiative will go a long way to boost women sports,” she added.

“Now that we have a ground of our own, I hope the authorities will also organise more sports events for us. It would really be a shame if this ground is not used now,” commented Asma Liaquat, another Karachi women hockey team player, who plays as right-out for her team.

Like the hockey players, on the other side of the ground were the women football players warming up for their festival match. “I feel like I did really well in my class examinations and this is my reward. Now all I wish for is logistic support,” said a very pleased young football defender who introduced herself as Fouzia Shaban.

“It is a really nice and clean ground. We hope to keep coming here for all our matches,” said a former kabbadi champion and current footballer and long jumper Shahida Hamid.

Meanwhile, Sindh Minister for Sports Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, the man behind the construction of the ground in Block-I of North Nazimabad, has made two managing committees, one for hockey and the other for football, for the future handling of the events at the ground.

Barrister Shahida Jamil, the patron of the Karachi Women Hockey, heads the committee with Karachi Women Hockey President Shaista Javed, Secetary Sanober Kazmi and team coach Shakir Ali as the members. For the football ground management there is Karachi Women Football General Secretary Fehmida Zamir, Arshad Jamil, Administrator North Nazimabad Amir Waqar and Shahina Mukhtar.

The stadium, a Rs11 million project, is built on three-and-a-half acres of land and is surrounded by a high boundary wall for privacy. It also has floodlights for holding night matches along with a small stand in one corner. For the moment it only has a small office and two small washrooms built at the far corner, but the girls sounded hopeful that in time when they would be holding bigger matches for big teams here, they will also have proper dressing room facilities.