What sport?

Fleeting moments
When we reminisce about the period when sports, mainly cricket and hockey, made big news, the era of the late 1970s and 1980s comes to mind. Our hockey team was nearly unbeatable.
Winning cricket or hockey matches was more or less routine, but losing them made news. Hockey is now a forgotten story; winning a cricket match is a luxury. The likes of squash kings Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan no longer emerge on the scene. Has the sports talent disappeared in the country? Or is nobody interested in hunting for talent?
Don’t go far. Watch the scene at the Gaddafi Sports Complex on Sundays. Isn’t it a pity that the playing fields, which are aplenty, are locked, while teams of young cricket enthusiasts play on the streets outside? Similarly, a picture in an English daily shows teams of girls playing cricket on the road in DHA, Karachi. Incidentally, the women’s cricket team has performed better than the men’s team. Probably male cricketers take less interest in the sport and more in its speculation where big bucks are involved.
But whose bright idea was it to plonk Alhamra Art and Culture Centre near the entrance of the Gaddafi sports complex. What have musical evenings, dramas, or puppet shows to do with sports? What plagues sports is the scourge of cronyism and political patronage at the top level. For instance, during the PPP’s rule, Ijaz Butt headed the PCB and his sister-in-law headed the women’s wing of cricket. This wing was later taken over by Bushra Aitzaz who was to contest an election on a PPP seat and had her security forfeited.
Now former diplomat Shehryar Khan heads the PCB. Octogenarian Khan played a long inning in diplomacy but, instead of playing with his grandchildren and writing his memoirs, he decided to direct the national cricket scene.
Why do former judges, bureaucrats, generals and politicians want to occupy top slots of sports organisations? If it’s not for recreation, freebies, and foreign trips abroad what is it? With heavyweights at the helm instead of professionals, it is unlikely that talent will find its rightful place. Let’s follow how it’s done in other countries that produce world-class sportsmen. Do those countries employ retired and tired bureaucrats to head their sports organisations?
At the local level, it’s heartening to observe how residents of the Model Town Society, Lahore, realise the importance of sports for youngsters. The society has provided fields for cricket, hockey, and football clubs.
However, the society’s own club of pre-Partition days has remained closed for some years now. It has hard courts for tennis, two squash courts and an Olympic size swimming pool. It fell to the vagaries of political infighting. Believably, Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, chairman Punjab Sports Board, wants to convert the club into a huge sports complex. The outrageously ambitious project, according to plans, would take Rs500 million to complete. Until the fabulous sum is raised, which itself is a million rupee question, why not reopen the club and let young talent find its place? How one wishes Hamza Shahbaz was a tennis buff!
The residents of the society deserve credit for encouraging their young boys and girls to participate in sports. To facilitate young sports enthusiasts, the Model Town Sports Club in K Block, which is different from the society’s own club, offers excellent facilities to play tennis and football. This club has four grass courts and three hard courts for tennis beside a well-equipped gym.
Pakistan’s former number one tennis player, Muhammad Khalid, coaches young boys and girls in the club. The privately-run sports facility has produced tennis players at the national level. Abid Mehood is one such person who has been representing the country at the international level. He was once a ball boy in this club and I did a piece on him in this paper.
The Punjab government could encourage such clubs by providing them electricity at cheaper rates than charging them at commercial rates. And will the federal government rid our national sports of the current VIP stranglehold on the top slots?
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.
Email: pinecity@gmail.com