Our sports officials are getting richer while our athletes are dying due to lack of funds. It’s time for a post-mortem of Pakistan’s sports
And, finally, Pakistan ended their Islamic Games journey without a gold medal, at the pathetic 27th spot out of 54 nations, in the Fourth Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku.
It was a poor performance from Pakistan despite the fact that the country has enormous talent in most of the disciplines.
Pakistan even finished behind nations like Bangladesh, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, war-ravaged Iraq and Syria, Mozambique, Benin, Senegal, Guinea and Gambia.
Pakistan took part in 15 disciplines and grabbed nine bronze and three silvers. Pakistan’s highly experienced karateka Saadi Abbas won silver, while the other silver medals came in 4x400m relay in men’s athletics and men’s tennis team event.
Pakistan got three bronze in wushu, two in shooting, and one each in wrestling, zurkhaneh, javelin throw and women’s swimming’s 4x200m freestyle relay.
Hosts Azerbaijan topped the slots with a staggering tally of 162 medals, which included 75 gold, 50 silver and 37 bronze. Turkey, Azerbaijan’s neighbour, ended second with 195 medals, including 71 gold, 67 silver and 57 bronze. Iran got the third position with 98 medals, including 39 gold, 26 silver and 33 bronze.
Pakistan lacked serious approach. There was no proper planning from the authorities that affected the overall performance of Pakistan.
Even some top officials of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the POA were not sure that Pakistan would win the medals which the athletes have snared.
Only the federations of athletics and wushu were expecting some medals. Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) was expecting seven to eight medals and its athletes got one silver and one bronze. Pakistan Wushu Federation (PWF) was expecting two gold medals but its players ended with three bronze when they lost in semis-finals.
AFP president Maj Gen Akram Sahi, who is a former international athlete, must have realised that other nations are progressing rapidly. Although a few athletes improved their personal best timings but they will need to further raise their performance.
Pakistan’s most successful karateka Saadi Abbas, who has been mostly groomed in Dubai, did well as he reached the 75kg men’s kumite final after recording four victories on the trot. He lost to a player from Azerbaijan in the gold medal fight, who was a world-class player.
The changes in rules affected Pakistan’s performance in wushu. Pakistan wushu players were competing without any coach and manager, who had not been issued NOC which is ridiculous.
The medal in women swimming was a surprise. Pakistan missed its star swimmer Dubai-based Lianna Swan who skipped the tour due to her examination.
Boxing was an utter disappointment as none of the seven pugilists whom Pakistan had fielded in Baku could give a breakthrough. The boxers’ poor show has proved that former Asian champions have lost their gloss and a sustained and serious effort is needed to revive boxing in the country.
In shooting an improvement was seen as besides capturing a couple of bronze medals most of the marksmen qualified for the finals.
Returning to international circuit after a long time, Pakistan’s men and women basketball teams’ poor performance was understandable.
There was no chance for Pakistan’s men handball team which finished seventh.
In men’s volleyball, Pakistan finished third in its group under a newly-hired Iranian coach Hamid Movahidi. After losing their initial games to Azerbaijan and Turkey, Pakistan beat Palestine and Turkmenistan to keep some prestige.
Pakistan failed in taekwondo, weightlifting and table tennis.
One of the positives of the event was a defiant show from Pakistan’s premier wrestler Mohammad Inam, who lost to Azerbaijan’s Sharif Sharifov, the 2012 London Olympics gold medallist, in the 86kg quarter-finals.
Pakistan missed ace tennis player Aisam-ul-Haq and Japan-based Olympian judoka Shah Hussain Shah. The entries of national judokas had not been sent by the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) for the Islamic Games due to its differences with the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF). The step harmed Pakistan as Shah could have won a gold medal.
The PJF wrote two letters to POA but the latter’s reply was a blunt ‘no’. It told the federation that the entries time-frame had expired.
The PJF has withdrawn all cases against the POA and wants to resolve the issue amicably as the NOC’s stance is badly damaging the cause of national judokas.
If the issue is not resolved, the judokas may not feature in this year’s Asian and Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan in September and next year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia and Asian Games in Indonesia.
Pakistan’s pathetic performance in the Islamic Games is a clear indication that our sports standard has gone down miserably. Our sports officials are getting richer while our athletes are dying due to lack of funds. It’s time for a post-mortem of Pakistan’s sports.
The Ministry of IPC and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) need strong administrators like Brig Rodham, Brig Sarfraz and Nur Khan, who could bring the country’s sports out of the deep quagmire.
We should learn from India which has set great goals and is progressing gradually towards these targets.
Pakistan has better talent than India but we lack a proper system. A country’s national teams’ strength can be gauged from its club strength and here we are too weak.
If Pakistan is to regain its lost glory in sports, it will have to improve its club structure in every discipline, making it professional.
Pakistani legislatures normally comment on cricket and its downfall but they don’t care about other sports.
Pakistan should impose sports emergency and a substantial budget should be kept for the area which is as important as education and health. If Pakistan focuses on sports its health expenditure will come down and the nation will become healthy.
IPC minister Riaz Pirzada resigned a few days before Pakistan contingent’s departure for Baku in protest against suspension of PSB Director General Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera.
The PM met him last Friday after which Pirzada reportedly agreed to withdraw his resignation. The ministry remained without a minister for several weeks.