The one factor that has caused irreparable damage to sports in Pakistan is the horrible attitude and corrupt practices of the officials manning the various sports federations in the country, writes Rishad Mahmood
Pakistan’s medal-less campaign at the recently held London Olympics has not only exposed the shambolic affairs of sports in the country, it has confirmed the worst fears of the critics and fans who are now getting accustomed to the below par performances of the national athletes in international events.
The truth is that Pakistan has never been really prolific when it comes to Olympic faring. They have fetched only 10 medals to date since its Olympic debut at the London Games in 1948. However, it was the Pakistan hockey team that always kept the country in the reckoning with its superlative effort in the Olympics, winning gold medals in 1960, 1968 and 1984, a silver each in Melbourne 1956 and in Munich 1972, and a bronze each in Montreal 1976 and at Barcelona 1992, which happened to be last occasion when the country featured amongst the medal winners at the mega event.
Even in other sports disciplines such as wrestling, boxing, swimming and athletics, the Pakistan athletes gave some hope to the nation with their effort and occasional brilliance to keep the green flag flying in major international competitions.
Today the scenario has completely changed, unfortunately, for the worse. Neither the Pakistan hockey team nor any other sportsmen in the country provide even a glimmer of hope to excel at the top level or to fetch a medal in leading international events such as the Olympics, the Asiad or even the Commonwealth Games. To add to the ignominy, a series of nasty controversies have surrounded the Pakistan sports and its athletes that continue to earn a bad name for the country all over.
While the graph of sports in Pakistan has seen a sharp decline since the early 1990s, one fails to see any urgency, either on the government’s part or the sports federations, to adopt resurrecting measures of any sort. No efforts whatsoever are witnessed to unearth talent at the grassroot level, let alone groom it for the future. To put it succinctly, the whole system stinks and needs a complete overhaul to salvage the declining standards of sports and the sportsmen.
The causes and factors contributing to the bleak scenario confronting Pakistan sports are so many that one cannot even begin to talk about them. However, while one can go on moaning about the government’s neglect, the lack of infrastructure, limited international exposure for the athletes, dearth of professional coaches, etc., the one factor that has caused irreparable damage is the horrible attitude and corrupt practices of the officials manning the various sports federations in the country.
A majority of the officials holding key posts at the ministry of sports as well as the parent organisations such the Pakistan Olympic Association and the Pakistan Sports Board failed to prove their ability or competence to run the affairs. Thanks to political backing and manouevring, these officials have literally held on to their posts for decades without producing anything of note that could do the Pakistan sports proud. The word ‘planning’ simply does not exist for them and their idea of ‘preparation’ for any sporting event boils down to setting up a short training camp which is mere eyewash and serves no purpose whatsoever.
What happened at the London Olympics was no surprise. Keen followers of sports will vouch for the fact that a debacle was always on the cards, thanks to the ill-preparedness of the country’s sports federations.
To begin with, the national hockey team, which comprised 80 per cent of the Olympic contingent, had remained embroiled in far too many controversies to concentrate on the huge challenge ahead of it. Former Olympian Qasim Zia, who currently heads the Pakistan Hockey Federation, and his deputy Asif Bajwa left no stone unturned to ensure Pakistan flopped at the London Games. First, the team lost its Dutch coach Michelle Van den Heuvel barely two months before the extravaganza which proved a definite setback for the side. Heuvel, a no-nonsense sort of a person bearing strong credentials as Holland’s ex-junior team coach, worked hard with the team to earn the country a gold out of nowhere at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China in 2010.
The PHF top brass, however, in a sorry bid to dictate terms removed the high-profile Dutch coach in March this year which shocked the experts of the game. If that wasn’t enough, the PHF antagonised a whole lot of former Olympians over trivial matters which led to a needless court battle. That, in effect, put paid to any good advice that the great players like Islahuddin, Samiullah, Shahnaz Sheikh and others could have given to the players ahead of the all-important Olympics.
That was followed by yet another row that saw the defection of Pakistan’s top five senior players — Shakeel Abbasi, Rehan Butt, Imran Wasti, Zeeshan Ashraf and Wasim Ahmed — to the rebel World Series Hockey League in India. The PHF was up in arms yet again and dished out hefty fines to the rebels amid ban threats. The hockey federation then went ahead and named seasoned Sohail Abbas as the new captain for Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia while drafting six raw juniors to replace the defecting seniors.
Pakistan slumped to a miserable sixth spot in Azlan Cup which compelled the PHF to take a somersault and reinstate the rebels with full honour and a generous invitation to join the Olympic camp set up in Karachi.
But the ‘blue turf’ row that erupted soon afterwards was, perhaps, the last straw. While the London organisers had announced for the new surface to be the standard at the Games as early as Jan 2011, the PHF woke up from a deep slumber in February 2012 to order a blue turf installation at the National Hockey Stadium in Lahore. Alas, it never came about as the whole mess over bidding and allotment of the contracts never allowed national players the opportunity to practice on the blue surface in Pakistan.
And hence the Olympic flop. Pakistan only managed to beat South Africa and Argentina, the only two teams that are ranked below them in international rating. The Greenshirts were no match to hosts Great Britsain or the all-conquering Aussies who handed them a drubbing to remember.
For Pakistan’s other competing athletes — shooter Khurram Inam, young swimmer Anum Bandey and Israr Hussain and athletes Liaquat Ali and Rabia Ashiq — the Olympic Games were an embarrassment as none of them qualified for the main rounds.
To everyone’s dismay, while Pakistan took a beating at the Games, the two prime sports bodies of the country — the POA and the PSB — remained at each other’s throat over a ‘sports policy’ feud that almost cost Pakistan its participation in the London Games. The critics as well as the millions of sports fans feel that the rot must stop now. They call for a complete system overhaul but it will not happen till such time officials like Gen (retd) Arif Hasan, Qasim Zia, Asif Bajwa and others are holding fort.
Pakistan’s poor show in the London Olympics rankles all the more when compared to troubled nations like Iran, Afghanistan and Ethiopia, all of whom returned with medals in their bag.
Sports in Pakistan require a revolution of some kind to put it back on the track. The Olympics happen every four years and that is enough time for us to prepare. In order to look good at Rio de Janerio, Pakistan must put a think tank in place comprising hardcore professionals and sincere sportspersons. They will then have to shortlist and groom talent for the 2016 Games and literally have to shut out the world on them by taking the selected athletes to a high-altitude venue like Abbottabad for extensive training.
There is no denying the fact that the country has sporting talent available in abundance. It only needs to be tapped and groomed with sincerity to make Pakistan shine again on the world map.