Forgetting legendary sportsmen a dangerous sign

ISLAMABAD: Another Olympian passes away without bothering the spineless sports system of the country.

Raja Mohammad Fazil a 4x100m athlete who represented Pakistan in the Helsinki (Finland) Olympics in 1952 and took the team to semifinal heats, breathed his last in Rawalpindi Monday without getting noticed by sports manager in the country.

For the last three months he has been fighting death at PAEC Hospital in Islamabad without any knowledge of sports administrator especially the officials of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP). Such has been the magnitude of heedlessness in the prevailing sports system in the country that not even single sports related personality was present at his funeral.

Even the AFP president Maj Gen (retd) Mohammad Akram Sahi was taken by surprise when told that one of the oldest Olympian dies at 92. “Is that so? I never knew anything about him. I have yet to go through the story published in The News Tuesday. We don’t have any track of Raja Fazil but we should have,” he admitted. AFP president, however, said that keeping track of Olympians and athletes was the responsibility of all. “It is nothing less than news for me as a president athletics federation that an athlete who helped Pakistan reach the semifinal heats of the 4x100m relay in Helsinki Olympics was alive and died on Monday.”

Even Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) officials have no clue about Fazil who was part of 38-member Pakistan contingent to Helsinki Olympics in 1952. The country is just fresh from the tragic death of hockey legend Mansoor who not only captained the national team in 1996 Olympics but also played the decisive role in winning two last major international hockey events for the country in 1994. Though everyone knew about Mansoor no one (Pakistan Hockey Federation or PSB) tried to share his woes during his trouble days. The legend death was more a result of the torrid time he had gone through following his suspension from employment and later developing serious family crises due to financial problems.

Nations having no value or even no track record of their leading sportsmen never go on to groom quality future stuff. Those athletes who carry green flag in major international events deserve support and backing from country’s sports institutions in hour of need. Sadly that has never been the case in Pakistan. There is no existing system in the country that could ensure helping national sportsmen and women when they really need that.

Fazil’s death gives another awakening call to concern sports administrators and that is not to forget those who were part of our glory in yester years. At least a token presence at his funeral by sports related personalities or floral wreath on his graveyard on the day of death would have reminded his family that the deceased represented the country at the highest level.