SAG camps should have been started well in advance, says Ganjera

By Alam Zeb Safi

KARACHI: Former Director General of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera on Saturday said that the camps for 13th South Asian Games (SAG) should have been started well in advance, adding, the so much delay in starting preparation would affect the country’s medals prospects.

“I think it has been too late. The camp should have been started well in advance. There should have been a couple of years’ preparation for such a regional event. The delayed camps would bring Pakistan’s medals margin down,” Akhtar told ‘The News’ in an interview.

The 13th South Asian Games are slated to be held in Nepal’s cities of Kathmandu and Pokhara from December 1-10.

Akhtar said that SAG had a bigger face also, saying, it is also a subject of foreign affairs and help bring together nations.

“South Asian Games are very important as the event helps in connecting the SAARC nations closer and creates regional harmony,” said Akhtar, who has retired as DG PSB last year. Akhtar said that annual grants of the federations should not be stopped. “If the government stops funding federations it will lose its grip on them. I will give you an example in the 1981 Moscow Olympics. There were Russian and American blocs. Pakistan was in American bloc which staged a boycott. Pakistan hockey had the ability to win gold in those Olympics but it did not feature and so wasted the big opportunity. Australian government also wanted its federations not to feature in those Games but the federations did not obey the government and rather went on to take part in those Olympics and won medals,” Akhtar said.

“The basic reason behind not obeying the state order from the Australian federations was that the state was not funding federations. And it was after that incident that Australia Institute of Sports was formed and the state came very closer to the federations. In Pakistan too we have Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) which is not in control of the state. So I am not in favour of withdrawing annual grants of the federations,” Akhtar said.

However he was quick to add that there should be criteria for annual grants, depending on the strength and capability of the sports discipline concerned. He said that federations could not run sports effectively without state input. “Without state funding federations can survive but they would not be able to achieve anything bigger in sports. I think their grants should be kept intact,” Akhtar said.

To a query that an effort is being made to hold the 14th South Asian Games in Pakistan in Punjab’s different cities besides Islamabad, Akhtar said it was a ‘good idea’. “This is good idea as it will involve more crowd. But it will not only create administrative issues but the concept of a village and its festival nature will also be affected. Personally, I am in favour of holding such Games at a single place. Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad is ideal place for these Games if we add some more facilities as we have already hosted SAG twice there,” Akhtar said.

Pakistan will host the 14th South Asian Games either in 2021 or 2022 and a meeting of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) has also been held in this connection.