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Game
Plan overview Policy
matters support None
since 1992 Profiles in
action
Editorial There was a time when
Pakistan was a formidable presence in the sport arenas of the world. In From old scandals of confessions of ball tempering in cricket to the present-day positive results of dope tests, we have witnessed a long series of national encounters with ignominy. The recent evidence, of our bleak chances of attaining glory, came at the Beijing Olympics. Our players did not achieve any position at all. Many reasons for the decline in our collective performance in various games have been given. Some critics have blamed the disappearance of playgrounds from the maps of our metropolises. Others hold the rise of electronic gadgets and video games as a major cause of deteriorating physical competence as well as the global increase in obesity. Whereas, some hardcore sports enthusiasts argue that consumerism has altered the values of everybody. Now the collective emphasis is on acquiring more material luxuries and not on living a healthy life and playing fair. Some may even argue that our political climate does not instil any value of merit and transparency. Everything in this polity seems to depend on the legerdemains of the most powerful and the most venal actors. It is even fair to ask: why should a cricket player follow the rules when the ones controlling and doling out the taxpayers' money have acquired the power by unfair means. Our contributors, for this special report, have looked at the various possible strategies of redressing the situation. Aoun Sahi has looked into the role the corporate sector can or cannot play in uplifting the national standards. Nadeem Iqbal has held our policy-makers responsible for the malaise while others have tried to examine the different factors which have made us so familiar with defeat. With the hope that a closer examination is the first step towards addressing a national problem, we present our special report on sports. This is our game plan. Pakistan cannot evolve into an Olympic success automatically; had that been possible, we would have had lots of achievers in the last sixty years. We have to plan, identify and train existing players and introduce more sports. Above all, as a nation, we have to build our individual and collective character; develop the will to strive, to fight against odds and win. If the Pakistanis don't wake up from their present slumber, this Olympic nightmare will go on endlessly By Ammara Ahmad Most of us will remember
the Olympics 2008, the spectacle, medals, internationalism and the reality The fact that Pakistan is nowhere on the scene should not pinch you since, after all, we are a third world country, with scarce resources and other priorities. But wait a minute! Let's look at the 2004 Olympic medal count. Countries like Cuba, Iran, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Uzbekistan ended up with several medals including gold. Even India has taken a shooting gold. The fact that USA was number 1 and China was number 2 in 2004 should not be overlooked either, since China is still a third world developing country and the US defense budget has little to do with its Olympic performance. The economy and GDP of a country is separate from its Olympic performance. The last time we won an Olympic medal was in 1992. We have never attained an individual gold medal, no athlete ever qualified and all entered through wild cards. Why is Pakistan still an Olympic dwarf? The most Unolympian of the Olympic nations? Well firstly, Olympics performance requires years of practice, motivation, financing and infrastructure. And above all one has to be goal-oriented i.e. dedicated to the dream of winning a medal. Although the prime issue in Pakistani sports is money, it's still not the only issue. Behind every committed, striving Olympic medalist, there is at least one world-class coach, and behind him at least one big paycheck and a goal. No sport works without money and motivation. Sports require infrastructure, starting from the grassroots level. If my college is the grassroots level, the sports scene is bleak. Those who don't end up on merit are admitted on sports basis and this means that participation is compulsory. New and talented players offer rivalry, since the old ones have been scorching in the heat already. There have been examples when a hockey ball is purposely not passed, with the argument in mind, why should we let her be the star when we have been playing for just as long? Very few girls in the college identify with, or realise the fact that sports will bring them good health, achievement, a better looking CV, travel opportunities and perhaps even a stipend. A performance in Olympics would transform their lives. But who is encouraging them, waiting to discover and polish their aptitude and turn it all into a profit? No one. A common argument is that Pakistan 'excels' in sports that are not Olympic events like squash, polo, snooker and cricket. Well Spain has the Toreo (bullfighting) and China has Kung Fu, but rather than waiting (like Godot) for these to become Olympic events, these countries are producing world-class athletes in other sports, too. The Olympics have three hundred plus events and Pakistan enters only three or four each time. Now, creating national level interest in a sport requires media coverage, funds and high standard performances to attract the public attention. If this had happened in Pakistan, sports like archery, canoeing, sailing, shooting and wrestling could have won Pakistan Olympic medals, along with generating income, bringing upward mobility and stardom to many youngsters in Pakistan. But rather then introducing new sports, the one Olympic sport Pakistan championed has slipped away from it. Sadly, Pakistan's Hockey team's lackluster qualification into the Olympics 2008 further publicised its thirst for better coaches and technology. And a valid question is where is the ladies hockey team? Why couldn't the female hockey team qualify? A medal in a woman's event is equal to that of a man. Half of the Chinese and American Olympic medals are won by women. Flags raised high, countries made proud. Historically, no woman in Pakistan has ever qualified for the Olympics. Many African nations have produced athletic stars. Women from the oppressed minorities/communities of USA and elsewhere, like the African-Americans and Aborigines of Australia, have dominated the track. Pakistan might be third world but the urban women in Pakistan have a fair chance in sports. Many thousand have entered colleges and the national work force already. Yet, simply because sportswomen are available, won't take Pakistan anywhere, till we target them as a viable sports resource. Pakistan has a talent pool waiting to be polished. If a player does emerge, his plunge into poverty is ensured. Rather than getting sponsors and advertisements, he is left to yearn for even a stipend. In the Athens Olympics, a Pakistani athlete, Rubab, stated that her daily stipend was $30. This was enough to buy her some scoops of ice cream but not to hire a coach which she did privately. If starvation is guaranteed, no student will ever sacrifice his degree for sports. Private sector sponsorship/funding remains a vital and imperative need in Pakistan, in the absence of any proper government organisation and initiatives; and though this has been somewhat more forthcoming of late (mostly in 'glamour sports' like cricket, polo and golf) it is still a long way from any regular, worthwhile investment in our quadrennial Olympic efforts. The American Olympic team raised funds for itself by donations. Why can't the Pakistani team do so? Sports companies sponsor them with apparatus, designers design their uniform, the uniform is manufactured by garment companies (Ralph Lauren this time) and shoe companies compete for getting selected. Many participants are merely teenagers and students. All the above is an honour. Is all this impossible in Pakistan? Can the corporate sector not aid it? Maybe, we could get some of the big companies like Coke, Pepsi, Mobilink, Habib Bank etc, who already have a presence in supporting some sports, to actually take over one athlete, or a few athletes in different sports, preparing them for the next Olympics? An idea certainly worth considering. One thing on which Pakistan missed out completely is that the Olympics mean 'income'. Sports stars generate profits, by attracting popularity, sponsors and talent pools. Cricket is an admired sport in Pakistan, and therefore its matches generate billions of dollars of profits. Imagine if there were ten or twenty such sports in Pakistan. Still, so far, no interest on part of the authorities, ministry and the government. The problem of disinterest and lack of government responsibility is a serious one, really. Just because Pakistan is waging a war on terror doesn't mean that our sports, our everyday lives and small pleasures, go down the drain. There is very little allocation of funds, little incentive to increase it and presumably corruption and nepotism take their toll too. There is no fixed sports policy for sports development, talent identification and resource/capacity building. Most sports have no associations, clubs, trainers or trainees in Pakistan. Some of those that do have some organisation --for example, Boxing, in which we used to do quite well by the way -- seem to have been cast into the doldrums by our bureaucratic sports bosses. Every sporty youngster and student need to ask the Ministry and the national Olympic Association what went wrong and demand a budget and plan for the next Olympics, to end this achievement deficiency. Even the public indifference to sports has grown. Interest can be generated by media and educational institutes but for that the establishment has to work. There should be noticeable achievements and adequate financing. It's not all the government's work. Clubs, trainers and trainees can be introduced privately or with help from sponsors. Colleges need to activate and encourage students. Pakistan cannot evolve into an Olympic success automatically; had that been possible, we would have had lots of achievers in the last sixty years. We have to plan, identify and train existing players and introduce more sports. Above all, as a nation, we have to build our individual and collective character; develop the will to strive, to fight against odds and win. If the Pakistanis don't wake up from their present slumber, this Olympic nightmare will go on endlessly. The national sports policy is bereft of any vision nor does it have any tangible targets to achieve By Nadeem Iqbal "We don't have a
tennis star like Sania Mirza who could pull the crowd and ultimately
corporate The official said that the federation is in the process of constructing a tennis complex and in-house academy where talented tennis children will be coached to become future stars. But the federation is finding it hard to attract any corporate donations. While the only incentive to the sports sector is that of tax exemption to their donations. The absence of stars in almost all the sports except cricket has made it impossible to attract corporate money into the sports activity. This has left the sports managers of the country to be dependent on public money and some other money generated through some lottery schemes. As far as the official money is concerned, the fact that the original development budget of 523 million rupees allocated for the federal sports division in the annual budget 2007-8 was revised downward to Rs 426 million by the end of the year and further slashed to Rs 350 million for the current fiscal year is enough to substantiate that the sports is in dilapidated condition and there is no officially consolidated approach to improve it. This situation is also reflected in the three-year-old revised national sports policy, which is bereft of any vision. Its implementation strategy also does not have any tangible targets to achieve. No wonder the policy remains a non-starter. The policy is completely delinked from international sports activities and tournaments. Its focus is more on the development of sports at regional level but does not clearly specify how this activity will be linked to international sports events. The mission statement enunciated by the policy document says, "The policy aims at promotion of sports at grass root level, enhancing public affiliation with the teams, ensuring all tournaments originate from inter-club level and culminate at the national level." As per policy, the officials seem to have developed this realisation that the people of Pakistan have almost lost interest in games organised at national and provincial levels, due to poor standard of sports. Besides other measures, proper formation of genuine clubs on area basis is essential. "The criteria for registration of a club will be enunciated by each sporting National Federation. Clubs in a tehsil/district must also register with the Sports Officer of the provincial government deputed in tehsil/district or equivalent administrative area for scrutiny, financial help and utilization of Government sporting facilities, where necessary. This will bring in mass participation and also help improving our sporting abilities. This will also provide an opportunity to our young sports persons to rise upwards and eventually be part of national teams." Although the policy provides for an elaborate system of the elections of local sports bodies, it has not succeeded in ending the controversies surrounding the elections and term of the office of the office bearers. The policy specifies a term of four year for an office-bearer and he or she can not stay on for more than two terms but there are reports that in many cases the official continued on same position for over two decades. In a recent meeting of the senate committee on sport, when the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) officials were questioned over their failure to implement the sports policy, they blamed the provincial sports ministries, saying that they were the ones responsible for the failure. The PSB officials were found lacking updates on the number of sports events held in the country under the policy. PSB's mandate includes assisting national federations in holding of national level tournaments by providing sporting facilities (only playing fields) free of any charge and constructing sports complexes for these games down to every District and tehsil Headquarters. These complexes on completion will be handed over to local governments and district or tehsil Sports Organizations for maintenance and use. The sports infrastructure envisaged by the policy consists of clubs, district, provincial and national bodies besides a separate directorate in the education ministry to oversee regular observance of sports activities in schools and other educational institutions. But no document is available to show the level of progress. There has also been a lopsided stress on women sports as the policy says, "all Sports Federations will organize club, inter district and national appropriate sports for women. Women Wings (where feasible) will be created in Federations/Associations." An increasing number of failures at international events makes it pertinent that the government should come out with an ambitious action plan in consultation with media, local governments and corporate sector and should set for itself practical targets with clear benchmarks.
The corporate sector is only ready to sponsor cricket that brings maximum return to its investments. This is how it justifies the policy... By Aoun Sahi In the second week of
March this year, Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, President Pakistan Football Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. It has a fan following and viewership of billions. According to a survey conducted by FIFA, over 240 million people from more than 200 countries regularly play football. In the world the maximum corporate sponsorship goes to football but in Pakistan the corporate sector is not interested in sponsoring football. Even sports like hockey and squash, which are very popular in Pakistan and in which Pakistan has been world champion, are unable to draw the attention of the corporate sector for sponsorship. Cricket is the sport which is getting the maximum support and sponsorship from the corporate sector. According to sports experts, more than 70 per cent of total sponsorship by the corporate sector in Pakistan goes to cricket alone. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is the richest sports body in Pakistan while cricketers are the richest sportsmen. Different cricket players are appointed as brand ambassadors by different companies for promotion of their products and they have been earning billions of rupees from advertisements of different products. The corporate sector in Pakistan is not only sponsoring international matches and tournaments but it has also started sponsoring national and local levels cricket tournaments. Besides, some companies in collaboration with PCB have been launching different talent hunt schemes for future cricketers, which shows the interest of the corporate sector in this game. In August 2007 while launching such a talent hunt programme for future cricket heroes in Pakistan, Zouhair A. Khaliq, President Mobilink said, "Cricket is the game of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Being the official mobile phone service company of Pakistan Cricket, it was our promise to create a nationwide talent and outreach programme that could one day change the lives of ordinary young men to become heroes of tomorrow." The statement clearly indicates the intentions of the corporate sector in sports sponsorship in Pakistan. They have been spending billions of rupees to find out future cricketers because they know they will be the future heroes of Pakistani sports and once they will be recognised as good players, they can play an important role to promote their brands and products. The question arises: Why is the corporate sector in Pakistan is only interested in sponsoring cricket? According to sports experts, the answer is very simple: the corporate sector's business is to earn money and not to promote sports. "They want just to associate their products with winners. They target games because it brings maximum visibility and they try to create a co-relation between their products and a specific sport. This co-relation is developed on the basis of the strength of that game. In Pakistan, at present, cricket is the most liked game and that is why most of the corporate sponsorship and support goes to cricket," says Aamir Bilal, CEO Sports Development Foundation (SDF), an NGO working on development of sports at grassroots level through sports education. A high official of a telecom company in Pakistan seconds Aamir's point of view: "We want to sell our product and at present cricket is a sport where Pakistan is winning at international circles and that is why every big company wants cricketers as part of their advertisement or become sponsors of cricket matches. We do not want to associate our product with Hockey or Squash as the value of these has diminished to a great extent," he tells TNS on condition of anonymity. According to the official, promoting sports at grassroots level, capacity building of sportsmen and upgrading the standard of sports is the duty of respective sports bodies and not of the corporate sector. "Once the sports bodies will have better sports products with them, the corporate sector will automatically jump in to sponsor that game." The official says that the corporate sector wants to associate with the sport or player which has the maximum range or recognition in Pakistan. "Cricket has the maximum range out of all sports played here and that is why it is the most coveted since it gives maximum returns to their investment." Aamir Bilal points out a very important issue related to sports bodies. "Sports bodies in Pakistan except PCB do not have sports marketing people with them. They do not know how to sell their product. They should keep in mind that the corporate sector will never come to sports bodies. In fact they will have to go to the corporate sector to sell their product and before going to them they need to enhance the value of their product." According to Bilal, the problem is that most sports bodies are headed and run by retired players of respective games. "They could hire better coaches. Running a sports body is a different kind of business which needs skills and knowledge like management and marketing. The people in the corporate sector are professionals and they want to deal with professionals while retired sportsmen, most of the time, lack marketing skills and that is why they fail to impress the sponsors." Bilal thinks that professionals should head sports bodies instead of retired players. Aamir Bilal says that though the development of sports infrastructure is the duty of government and respective sports bodies, the corporate sector should jump in too. "It will not only help promote sports but can also help earn a lot of money for the corporate sector. Everybody knows that PIA Squash Complex in Karachi is earning billion of rupees in the name of monthly fee and sponsorships. The big corporate companies and banks can build modern sports complexes in different cities as their business venture which will provide great opportunity to budding players to improve their sporting skills." Pakistan stands far behind even in the underdeveloped world's Olympic hall of fame By Aziz Omar Over the years,
Pakistan's performance in the Olympic Games has gone from dismal to
absolutely Cuba for instance has won 159 Olympic medals since 1948, with 60 of them gold ones, mostly in athletics and contact sports such as boxing, wrestling, judo and fencing. Cuba by the way had a $45 billion GDP output in 2007, which is only one-thirds of Pakistan's. Though Cuba currently has a slightly higher GDP per capita of $4,500 with regards to Pakistan's $2,600, it is only due to the island nation's small population of around 11 million in the face of 170 million of the latter. Since 1990, Fidel Castro's regime has poured in about $80 million, per year at that too, into Olympic sports. Reportedly, Fidel Castro takes great pride in the fact that Cuba has mostly finished in the top ten nations at successive Olympic Games since the late seventies and terms their achievements as the fruits of their efforts to promote clean, healthy sports. Of course this was largely made possible from the generous development aid that was coming from East Germany and USSR at that time. However, a case in point here is that Pakistan too has received tens of billions of dollars of development assistance over the years with almost a billion dollars flowing in each year. Clinching medals in various sporting events has also proven for Cuba's male and female players as a means of accessing freedom. A number of athletes, boxers, volleyball and baseball players, swimmers and gymnasts have defected to other countries such as largely to the United States as well as to European nations such as Italy, Germany and Belgium. Of course, sportspersons in the US and European countries have the potential to earn millions of dollars each year in the form of sponsorship and product endorsement deals such as the ones between Tiger Woods and Nike or David Beckham and Adidas. The clause of being a relatively young nation is an oft-repeated excuse within Pakistan for a sundry list of problems, amongst which the pitfalls of the participation in Olympic Games is also included. However, let's take the case of Kenya for instance which got its independence in 1963. Not only Kenya has a GDP which is one-fifth that of Pakistan's, its GDP per capita (PPP) is two-thirds of our country's. Yet this African nation has garnered 68 Olympic medals, mostly in Athletics and some in boxing. Kenyan sportspersons have mostly excelled in distance running and even though their Olympic glory had almost entirely been attributed to male athletes, this time around in Beijing more than half of their medals have been won by women. Perhaps they have been spurred on by the promise of attractive cash rewards, as their President Mwai Kibaki has declared that medalists shall receive amounts up to $11,000. But such monetary incentives have not apparently always been responsible for Olympic success. Kipchoge Keino, who won four medals in the Games of 1968 and 1972, ran at the very risk of his own life. Suffering from gallstones at the time of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Keino ignored the advice of his doctors to not take part in the 10km race and went ahead whereby stumbling in pain in the last two laps and still finishing fifth. Keino still persisted and went on to win silver and gold in the 5,000 and 1,500 meters events. With Kenyan currency being roughly the same as the Pakistani one, the former's government has recently allocated around 210 million shillings in order to build modern sports facilities in each of the country's eight provincial capitals. Just for the preparation of the Olympic team, around 100 shillings were set aside. Even though Kenya has its fair share of corruption, with the current government planning to soak up nearly 80 percent of the its $10 billion national budget, President Mwai feels that funding sports facilities is imperative for enhancing national cohesion and patriotism which is important in nation building.
Profiles
in action Over the last eight years, many Pakistani sportsmen and women have participated in national and international events. TNS takes a look at the careers of individuals who made a mark Carla Khan Carla Khan is a
professional squash player and ranked 48 in world ratings.She is the
granddaughter Carla Khan's first tournament was at the British Open in 1999. After an unsuccessful first season in 2000, she made the breakthrough the following year, but it was not until 2002 that Carla won her first title at the El Salvador Open, in Nov 2002, she reached her first final against Mexican Samantha Teran and went on to beat her. Her winning streak continued in 2003, as she won the Ottawa International, where she came from behind to beat Melissa Martin from Australia. At the Irish Open in 2004, Carla defeated World number 1, Nicol David , and achieved her highest ranking of 21. In 2008, she defeated England's Emma Beddoes to take the Austrian Open. Aisam-ul-Haq Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi is a Pakistani tennis player. Aisam had a successful career in Junior tennis, finishing No. 7 in the world in 1998, which made him Pakistan's highest-ranked player ever on the international youth tennis arena in 1998. Aisam teamed with Israeli player Amir Hadad during Wimbledon and the US Open tournaments in 2002. Together, they were eliminated at the third round of Wimbledon, and then in the Second round at the US Open. They both won the "Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award" for playing together despite pressure from their communities. As Pakistan's number one, he has led Pakistan's Davis Cup campaign. After beating New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I, he took to the World Group play-offs for the first time in 2005, before they were beaten by Chile. He has won the most Davis Cup matches for Pakistan, being the most successful singles and doubles player ever. He also has the best doubles pairing for Pakistan with Aqeel Khan. In 2007, he reached the second round at Wimbledon and later in July at Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, he reached the quarter-finals. In Sept 2007, he reached his first Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) doubles final with Indian Rohan Bopanna at the Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open in Mumbai, India, where they lost to Robert Lindstedt and Jarkko Nieminen. Haider Ali Haider Ali is an
outstanding boxer in the history of Pakistan boxing. It is a treat for
boxing lovers to In the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002, he boxed with great courage and determination to reach the final and was pitted against the Indian boxer Som Bahadur Pun. He defeated the Indian boxer and won the first-ever Gold Medal for Pakistan in Commonwealth Games. Kiran Khan Kiran Khan the national
swimmer has swam for the Pakistani team in the Asian Games as well as the She appeared in six different events in Manchester, her best result being an overall 37th ranking in the 50 metres backstroke in which she swam the distance in her preliminary race in 32.94 seconds. She also took part in the 50 metres freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley. Kiran has been quite successful at the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games, which are now known simply as the South Asian Games. She has bagged as many as 16 medals in just two rounds of the games. She won six silver and two bronze medals at Islamabad 2004 and another two silver and six bronze at Colombo 2006. Incidentally, ever since the Pakistani girls hit the swimming pool waters at the international level some six years ago, only one gold medal has come their way in a multi-nation event. Kiran got one at the South Asian Swimming and Water Polo Championship, at Islamabad in Sept 2007. She won the 50 metres butterfly gold in a new national record time, in a competition where India dominated and Sri Lanka were a close second. Kiran finished ahead of Fariha Zaman of India and Miniruwani Samarakoon of Sri Lanka. Muhammad Essa Muhammad Essa was born in the football crazy city of Chaman and took up the game with great interest and passion. He played in the Afghan Club Chaman youth team before signing for PTCL Football Club. He was discovered by then Pakistan Under 20 in early 1999 and found his way into the Pakistan national football team soon enough, receiving his first cap in 2000. Essa's most famous moment came when he scored from a free-kick against India in the first match of the 2005 Pakistan-India friendly series, at the Ayub National Stadium, Quetta to tie the game 1-1 with minutes to go before the final whistle. With a 3-0 victory in the final game in which Essa scored, he was offered a playing contract from major Indian football team, East Bengal Club, but the PFF seemingly turned it down to the disappointment of many Pakistani football fans. In the inaugural 2004 Pakistan Premier League (PPL) season he returned to his home town club Afghan Club Chaman with his goals helping them to survive relegation. The following season, the striker transferring to WAPDA Football Club but couldn't help them retain their PPL title; finishing second to Pakistan Army Football Club. In 2006, he captained Pakistan to another SAF Games gold medal. Returning from the Games, he moved to KRL and helping them finish third in the 2006-07 season. The striker was awarded the "Salaam Pakistan Award" for his contribution to sport by the former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf in 2007. He captained Pakistan to a surprise nil-nil draw against Iraq in Syria in the second leg of the World Cup 2010 qualifiers, but were knocked out due to a 7-0 aggregate loss. In the 2007-08 season of
the PPL, Essa struggled to score goals, only scoring 9 goals in Mohammed Yousuf Mohammed Yousuf is the most successful snooker player from Pakistan. In 1994, at the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Snooker Championship, he defeated Iceland's Johannes R. Johannesson to become the IBSF World Snooker Champion. In 1998 he won the Asian championship and in 2006, he crushed Glen Wilkinson of Australia in Amman to win the IBSF World Masters Championship. -- Compiled by Naila Inayat
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squash, cricket, and hockey, Pakistani players were unbeatable for years.
Then, somehow, our athletic and sports performance started waning.
that Pakistan came back home achievement-starved, yet again.
sponsors to the tennis tournaments," says an official of tennis
federation while talking to TNS.
Federation (PFF), in an interview with a newspaper said that no game can
prosper without sponsorship. He also said that despite FIFA and government
help, the PFF had still been facing financial problems and he had been
trying his level best to involve the corporate sector in football to
overcome the financial problems of the game in Pakistan.
pathetic. In all Pakistan has won 10 medals since its independence.
However, since 1992, none of our country's players has won a single
Olympic medal, not even in our national sport hockey which was considered
to be our forte in this mega sports event and has won us eight of our ten
medals. This time around, only a 21-member team of sportspersons -- with
16 of them part of the hockey team -- has been sent to Beijing for only
four out of the twenty eight sports. Pakistani officials are most probably
citing lack of funding due to overall ailing economic situation of the
country. However, countries such as Cuba and Kenya which are amongst the
most underdeveloped nations in the world have won scores of medals.
of Azam Khan, the legendary squash player and daughter of Wasil Khan, a
junior world champion, who was also her coach. She started playing squash
in England at the age of 12. She has won three titles in her career, which
are: El Salvador Open 2002, Ottawa Open 2003 and the Pakistan Open 2005.
Her highest ranking was 21 in May 2004
watch him in action. He started boxing at an early age and became the
National Champion in 1998. He won Gold Medals in Green Hill International
Boxing Tournament held at Karachi in 1998. And also won the Late Imam
Khomeini International Boxing Tournament held in Iran, 1999. He
represented Pakistan in 1999 SAF Games held in Nepal where he again won a
Gold Medal. During the XXI Asian Boxing Championship in Malaysia during
2002, Haider Ali emerged as the new Asian Boxing Champion. He remained
unbeaten till the final round when he outclassed Thailand's Champion,
Pugilist to claim the Asian title. He fought courageously against heavy
odds and got the honour of "The Best Boxer of the tournament"
which is really an honour for Pakistan.
Commonwealth Games, along with several other international swimming
events. Kiran is the daughter of a former international Pakistani swimmer
Khalid Zaman Khan. Her elder brother Sikander Khan too is a prominent
national swimmer. Both represented the country in the ninth FINA World
Short Course Swimming Championships in Manchester, England, in April 2008.
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appearances. He retained his captaincy for the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup
qualifying campaign.