Twenty-one years ago, the Sindh Sports Board (SSB) took games to the grassroots when it held Sindh School Games in Karachi. However, such games have remained absent from the sports arena in the past 10 years which is a poor reflection of those who were at the helm of affairs of SSB during the decade.

The very objective of holding the Sindh School Games was to involve the youngsters and help lay a solid foundation in order to build a healthy society as well as inculcate discipline and self-confidence through competitions. In most cases world over, schools are regarded as the fertile ground for spotting talented youngsters who are groomed into world class players in different games. In this context, the SSB launched its schools games programme of holding the games after every two years with active support and cooperation of the concerned educational authorities. The response was encouraging and positive.

Karachi led this programme by hosting the first Sindh School Games in 1991 and Abdul Hamid Akhund, the then secretary of sports, culture, tourism and youth affairs, as chairman of the organising committee, ensured the success of the Games. The contestant divisions in eight disciplines were Larkana, Hyderabad, Sukkur and host Karachi. It was a good beginning and perhaps the SSB was the first to launch its programme to involve schools competitors at the provincial level.

Larkana hosted the second Games in 1993 and after a four-year gap, the third Games were held at Sukkur where the disciplines were increased to 12. This was the first time that Mirpurkhas division competed in the Games. However, it again took four years to stage the fourth games in Larkana in 2001 and a year later the fifth games were held in Karachi where 16 teams comprising around 2000 athletes from various districts participated.

However, while these events were a good sign, it is still very disappointing that no further such events have been organised since then.

The seventh Sindh Games, recently concluded in Hyderabad, were almost fully funded by the Sindh Government, but the event was organised by the Sindh Olympic Association which is affiliated with Pakistan Olympic Association. There are more than a dozen provincial sports associations and the general perception is that, barring a few, they all simply exist on paper. This is quite evident by Sindh’s performance at the National Games which has been quite disappointing in the past few years. This is why Sindh Sports Board needs to revive its Sindh School Games, and lack of funding should not be an excuse.

It is entirely possible that the provincial sports minister Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, who is also the SOA president, is not aware about the SSG since he was not briefed about it by the sports bureaucracy. But the school games can easily by organised in Hyderabad before end of the year and the recently appointed SSB director Mushtaq Ahmed, who has had a long association with sports, can easily carry out the responsibly of reviving the Games.