The president of Argentina rings up his Iranian counterpart and tells him that their volleyball coach is a national of Argentina and they need him to prepare their team for Olympics. He requests Iran to release him.

This is how sports is looked after in the world. In Pakistan the Prime Minister cannot spare even a few minutes to know from his sports minister what the country needs to lift its sports. And it shows.

It’s really unfortunate that sports in Pakistan is run on an ad-hoc basis with no long-term plan which could provide an impetus to sports which is treated by the rest of the world as an industry.

I would like to emphasise the importance of foreign training tours for Pakistan’s national teams and players in individual disciplines ahead of any international assignments. This aspect of the sports is not properly taken care of.

Without giving quality training to players it is foolish to expect them to win laurels. Here I will not give any reference of a major European country but will point out how Sri Lanka started growing in sports. Every federation of that country has been meticulously working on providing maximum possible exposure to their youngsters. For the last few years, their athletes in various disciplines are being trained abroad.

More recently, one of their athletes visited Vietnam for the Asian Junior Athletics Championship from Finland where he had been sent to hone his skills. Even five to six years ago, their athletes were seen training in Brazil and other developed countries of the world.

They know that they could rightly nurture their talent by providing them with quality training on foreign soil where they practise with better players and can use facilities much better than what their country offers to them.

India, a fast-rising sporting nation, has been the best as far as providing exposure to its players is concerned. Their national academy and research centre also contributes strongly to sports development.

In Pakistan we don’t see such an approach. These days, Pakistani boxers are in Baku to compete in the World Qualifying rounds for Olympics. They were trained in Islamabad and the coach Arshad Hussain told me before leaving for Azerbaijan that he had to face deep trouble in making sound training arrangement for his boxers in the camp because there was no one competent enough in the national circuit who could do quality sparring with them.

He said had his lot been trained abroad for at least a couple of months, three of them would certainly have ample chance of qualifying for the Rio Games.

Pakistan will be featuring in the Asian Junior Volleyball Championship in Vietnam next month but without any foreign tour. Pakistan won bronze in 2008 as the team had been sent abroad before the event in Iran.

A senior official of Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) said the other day that because of financial problems they could not arrange foreign training tour for the team which comprises fresh talent. Some of them are below 17 years of age.

Keeping in view the importance of quality training, Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has begun to put its leading athletes in foreign academies and high performance centres abroad through the assistance of world athletics governing body (IAAF) and Asian Athletics Association (AAA).

When you think of Usain Bolt, Jamaica will come to your mind. Athletes play leading role in image building of a nation across the globe.

If the two shooters and Japan-based judoka Shah Hussain are provided with training on foreign soil, they will be able to deliver their best in Rio Olympics. But so far nothing concrete has been planned.

The government is equally responsible for all the mess. The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) can spend Rs137 million on a low-level Inter-Provincial event in Islamabad but it does not have money for foreign training of its budding players.

The money that the Board spent on the event could have easily financed foreign training of around 30 top-level players of individual sports in foreign academies for a couple of years. The standard of the athletes will not rise until they are given ample international competitions and foreign training opportunities.

Pakistani players fail to maintain their personal best performances in individual sports when they compete at higher levels because of pressure and lack of confidence, the impediments which can only be overcome through solid preparatory plans, foreign training tours and competitions before international assignments.

Pakistan’s sports authorities will have to change their priorities if they want to see their players grow properly.

Just a few years ago Pakistani volleyball team would beat Iran but now Iran is an Asian giant because the authorities there took the sport seriously.

Pakistan can compete with Iran’s football teams at Under-13 and Under-14 level but there is no comparison when it comes to their national senior teams. Why? The reason is they work on their juniors properly while we waste our talent because of no proper system. Our national federations only look towards the PSB for grants.

It is time the federations began managing their own affairs properly. Their top officials should build relations with the leading personalities of their international federations and Pakistan’s ambassadors abroad and take their help for grooming the athletes. They should seek sponsors, and hold joint training camps and maximum international competitions in Pakistan. This is the only way our athletes can win at major international events.

In Ramazan no one at the PSB works. Why? The other day I asked a PSB official when the executive committee meeting of the Board will be held. He said: "You know, in Ramadan no one works." It is a non-professional approach.

There are certain federations which do nothing. They ride on the heroics of their foreign-based players in whose build-up and development they don’t have any contribution. They will have to work hard to bring their Pakistan-based players at par with those Pakistani players who live and train abroad.

It’s time our authorities thought seriously and brought a change in our sports culture.