Restoration of departmental teams moving at slow pace

KARACHI: The progress in restoring departmental sports teams except those of cricket has been slow. PM Shahbaz Sharif has issued directives to departments to restore their sports teams. They were abolished in 2019 during the reign of PTI.

The sports officials are waiting for the green signal from the heads of departments and approval of their annual budgets for the establishment of sports teams in various disciplines for the domestic season 2023-2024, 'The News' has learnt.

Only PCB chairman Najam Sethi has received a positive response as heads of various departments have contacted him and assured him that they are ready to restore their cricket teams for the domestic cricket season. Other sports might have to wait till the annual budget in June.

The sources said that the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) has adopted a wait-and-see policy as it has asked sports officials to wait for a few more days before starting the preparations of establishing teams.

It is pertinent to mention that amid the political and economic uncertainty, the departments’ high-ups are reluctant to take a final decision before restoring the abolished teams.

The sources said that when the allocation of sports budget in different departments is confirmed, the officers will be able to hire the services of players of cricket, hockey, football, athletics, squash, swimming, cycling, wrestling, judo, karate, and other disciplines.

The KPT officials are hopeful about their teams getting restored. And they are also ready to hire players in various disciplines on a contractual basis besides calling up permanent players.

SSGC has also drafted a summary and sent it to high-ups. But, there has been no further progress.