PSB to focus on individual sports: PSB DG

KARACHI: Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) is considering focusing on such individual sports where the nation can win medals at major stages.

“Yes, we are considering focusing on individual sports. We see that there are some disciplines of individual sports in which we can win major international medals,” the PSB Director General Col Asif Zaman told ‘The News’ in an interview.

“It’s not easy to look after team sports properly as you need massive resources. Yes, if we push the government to make some increase in our budget we will be in a perfect position to support individual sports,” said Asif, also a former squash player.

“We have the example of Arshad Nadeem and Talha Talib who fought bravely in the Tokyo Olympics. There are some other good players in these disciplines and also in wrestling,” Asif said.

He said that the PSB plans to prioritise certain sports. He said that the Board plans to help the federations in hiring foreign coaches. “We will hire coaches for those federations which are hard working and want to develop their sports. We will back their training and foreign tours as we want to work much faster in coming months,” Asif said.

“Look, we hired an Iranian coach for volleyball. I event want to bring coaches from Europe so that our budding athletes could be developed in a much better way,” he said.

Asif wants to see a larger contingent of Pakistan in 2024 Paris Olympics. “Yes, that’s our target. We want more Pakistani athletes to qualify for the 2024 Games,” Asif said.

He said that for executing these plans the Board would need more funds.

Asif said that provinces would have to play a more aggressive role in sports development at the grassroots level. “After devolution, provinces’ budget is seven times higher than the budget of the PSB, so they should come forward and work sincerely for sports development. And we will then look after the elite sports properly and it will help Pakistan start producing results in international circuit,” he said.

However, he reiterated that better efforts would be needed from the federations and that the Board would monitor their performance closely. “We will back the federations but they also will have to start working more professionally and generate their own revenues through corporate sector,” Asif said.