Just before he took the Pakistan team to Sri Lanka and then England this summer, I had a detailed chat with Shahid Afridi in Karachi. It was June and though the 2011 World Cup was still almost nine months away, Afridi was more interested in talking about the quadrennial spectacle than anything else. He almost sounded obsessed with the idea of leading Pakistan to the World Cup crown almost twenty years after the great Imran Khan achieved that feat in Australia.

A few months and a series of controversies later, Afridi is still optimistic of Pakistan's World Cup chances though the captain doesn't sound as convincing as he did in June.

It's hardly surprising.

Pakistan cricket is going through its worst phase at the moment. Many of the country's leading cricketers are suspected of having links with match-fixers. Corruption allegations have tainted Pakistan's cricket team to the extent that several former cricketing greats like Ian Botham are calling for a ban on it. Such is the intensity of the charges against Pakistan that there are even fears that the 1992 world champions might not even take part in next year's World Cup.

Three of Pakistan's players -- Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir -- remain suspended as investigations continue into allegations of corruption against them. Asif and Amir have been accused of bowling deliberate no-balls on the orders of match-fixers. The International Cricket Council (ICC) is also investigating claims that Pakistani players were involved in 'spot-fixing' during their third One-day International against England at The Oval earlier this month.

As if all of it wasn't enough, Pakistan's cricket chiefs have engaged themselves in a bitter row with England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) following Ijaz Butt's insane comments about the England team throwing The Oval one-dayer for huge sums of money. ECB has demanded a public apology from the PCB chief but sources in the Board say that Butt is in no mood to say sorry.

There aren't many positive reports emitting from the Pakistan team either. The squad is back home after completing its acrimonious tour of England where Pakistan lost the four-Test series 1-3, Twenty20 International series 0-2 and finally the One-day International series 2-3.

During the best part of the tour, even if you put aside the so-called 'spot-fixing scandal', there weren't many happy stories as far as Pakistan's cricket team is concerned.

Afridi, who came out of Test exile to lead Pakistan in their first Test against Australia at Lord's last July, made a shocking announcement that he was quitting Test cricket again after playing just one match.

Later, when Pakistan were hit by a bombshell that came in the form of an exposé by News Of The World, sources close to Afridi claimed that the all-rounder was forced to retire because he wasn't happy with the fact that some of his players were allowed by the team management to openly mix with several 'suspicious' characters. One of those characters was Mazhar Majeed, the British business at the centre of the 'spot-fixing' scandal.

Pakistan went on to win their next Test against Australia -- their first Test win against the Aussies in 15 years. The triumph was hailed as a turning point for Pakistan cricket as many thought that under Salman Butt, the team was destined for more glory.

Sadly, things began to fall apart after that series-leveling triumph at Headingley.

Pakistan were crushed by England in the first two Tests at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston where the visitors batted like novices and gave more proof that they were easily the worst fielding side among all Test nations.

Pakistan dropped the controversial Kamran Akmal for his awful catching and poor batting after Trent Bridge and instead fielded debutant Zulqarnain Haider as their wicket-keeper at Edgbaston. The lanky stumper made a fighting 88 in the second innings but was sent back home ahead of the third Test at The Oval because of a finger injury. Well-placed sources in the team had revealed that the injury wasn't a serious one and that Zulqarnain could have played at The Oval. But there was no such luck for the youngster and Kamran Akmal was brought back to keep the wickets for Pakistan.

Conflicting reports continuously came out of the Pakistan camp during the tour regarding relations between the players and their coaches. While sources claimed that the team officials and some of the senior players were not even on talking terms, Afridi -- Pakistan's one-day captain -- kept insisting that he was at the helm of a completely 'united' team.

The players and team coaches, according to the sources, also developed bitter differences on the issue of fielding practice during the tour. While Ijaz Ahmed, the man who was entrusted with the responsibility of bringing about an improvement in the team's fielding standards insisted on marathon training sessions, many of the players believed such sessions did more harm than good.

"Sometime we are so stiff after those long sessions just before a game that the idea of fielding in the match used to make us really uneasy," one of the team members, who requested anonymity, told The News on Sunday.

Among the senior players there was this suspicion that Ijaz and company were against there presence in the team. The players feared that the extensive fielding sessions were aimed at ruining their fitness so that they could be kicked out of the team.

"Some of us (senior players) were convinced that the coaches want to get rid of us so that they can have their favourites in the team. It wasn't a good feeling at all," said another Pakistan player.

It wasn't just the players and officials who were not really getting along during the tour. The players, too, had their differences.

"The players began to suspect each other after the (spot-fixing) scandal," said a source. "If there was any unity in the team, it was pretty much gone after those three players were named in the scandal," he added.

In nutshell, Pakistan cricket is down in the dumps at the moment.

So is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

Sadly, with a man like Ijaz Butt at the helm of our cricket affairs, one can't be optimistic about anything.

What Pakistan cricket needs is a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief with a vision, somebody who can build bridges with the rest of cricketing world. Someone who can form a competent team, which can first carry out damage control and then rebuild Pakistan's credibility as a respected Test-playing country. It won't be easy but it's not impossible.

For the moment, as long as Ijaz Butt is in charge, such a turn-around is quite unlikely. You can't expect a man, with a sizeable contribution to the current mess, to suddenly change overnight and carry out this mammoth task. He has to go otherwise Pakistan cricket will become a lost cause.

The method with which the PCB is gerrymandered, re-setting the priorities isn't an easy task in spite of the swing and acceptance in public opinion against the management perspectives of Ijaz Butt, not merely board's chairman, but most definitely a self-inflictor. His senile laden thoughtless proclamations about the England team being involved in match-fixing without conclusive evidence has left 180 million people of Pakistan embarrassed.

Here I am not trying to acquit the English players, or absolving them completely or for that matter not at all making claims that they are sons of superior gods; nonetheless courtesy Butt, Pakistan has been virtually alienated and humiliated to the core.

Butt's inability and ineptness has not only ridiculed the Pakistaniness but also expunged the veracity out of cricket.

Today, the challenge isn't only to get the balance right, between the PCB government and the international space, but to convince the ICC and other boards that Pakistan is an integral part of cricket's presence and that it isn't really about ratting all the time that it has, as a product, slinked into devastation.

I must believe, and I do, circumstances change, the balance has to be redrawn. The PCB government needs to shed its chairman almost immediately. We have entered into a ravenous era of international conflict triggered by Butt himself, creating unnecessary noise without mapping out the ramifications, as if the ICC was an industry and he owned it. The rest of the world is now closely integrated than ever before, and the PCB and Pakistan cricket their shooting target, and with the tinge of apartheid, due to the chances that people like Butt have provided, they are collectively against us, not purposely but largely because of frustration seeing height of incompetence preserved so reverently and incessantly at the PCB.

Eruditely the situation needed to be assessed, manipulated and introspected skillfully; there wasn't any reason to blow the trumpet before there were calls for the sirens. Butt has to be weeded out or removed immediately since he has only been a source of problems and ruination for Pakistan cricket. On the diplomatic front, in case even if Pakistan was required to launch a protest, the method and ramifications should have been identified.

Alienation and altercation with the BCCI, the ICC, the ECB and Cricket Australia aren't leaving any space for the PCB to procreate the space of their choosing or a soft consensus to move forward. PCB and Butt are required to change that balance: we need more collective action at the international level, at the ICC and we cannot escape issues of corruption, not only restricted to Pakistan alone.

The remarkable changes that have confronted our cricket put enormous strains on the balance between the PCB government and the requirements plus the players and other stakeholders; and we have failed to respond appropriately.

The problems that have come to the fore in the past several years are, in part, a reflection of that failure. Butt instead of his nonsensical rhetoric is needed to put forward a framework that will help us get the balance back. There has to be a theme behind his sayings. This has been a difficult period when controversies and angled bias of the West against us has been reigning supreme. The BCCI and even the ICC are making billions, putting together deals and commercialisation of cricket, raising finance for start-ups like crooked plots (the Indian Premier League) and the Twenty20 World Cups.

The best and the brightest youth in Pakistan wanted to join in the excitement, the apartheid of the BCCI, the bias of the ICC instigating and incensing Pakistan initiating a match-fixing inquiry without taking the involved boards into confidence indicated that they were attempting to mask their failures, showing that they were completely intolerant to player corruptibility and issues of match-fixing. PCB has terribly failed to register and reply to the mechanisms working against them, not because of the sagacity of the West and the ICC or India but primarily due to their glaring incompetence and ineptitude to rationalise the consequences of the cold war that has always existed between them and the rest.

Until the PCB is run by political appointees or by a battery of senile compensation will not reflect productivity. And the Pakistan People Party's government aren't seemingly keen or focussed to consider it as an industry and an important tool to bring people together collectively under its umbrella. Cricket could be a catalyst between the government and the estranged, war-stricken, flood-hit people of Pakistan.

While policymaking circles, there was the same apathy to the view of cricket. In case if the Patron of the PCB intends to save cricket from the fringe of outrage, a PCB, composed of experts from the cricket community, are to be left alone to set first the survival and then cricket's development policies, their steady hand ensuring stable growth without compromises. It should be clear: I believe transparency shouldn't be rhetorical or theoretical but practically implemented and it is absolutely important.

My analysis on asymmetric information helps explain the central role of PCB as cricket's governing and patronising body at all tiers in Pakistan and to acquaint it with the modern requirements. But that same work also delineates why unregulated policies often do not work well, why there is a need for apt government, and what is good for national cricket, good for the game as a whole, or for the Pakistani cricket team.

Instead of insensibly drawing criticism from the ECB, and the ICC, Butt should have rationalised by studying keenly the sequence of events in England and accusations hurled at the Pakistan team and the players, should have analysed PCB's value as a full member and the current merchandise rate of his product, the slurs and West's instigating and scathing remarks; only then he could review mechanisms to be installed at the diplomatic front and also shaping-up responses in power-quarters.

The ICC, the ECB, News of the World and The Sun all could have been drawn into a framework and responded articulately and keeping in view the libel and legal responses in the fray. Butt now attracts a possible case of defamation by the ECB and England cricketers or he tenders an unconditional apology; if he does the first, it is humiliation for Pakistan and if he opts for the latter, it would be double humiliation for our pride. Butt avoid us the agony of being shamed; and if you can do that; please resign without delay!

It is an incontrovertible fact that cricket is followed next to the religion in this country -- a good chunk of our population eat, sleep and drink cricket.

In such situations, it is hard to imagine that no importance is paid to promote sports by the authorities -- whether board or the government. Considering the passion that people have for cricket in Pakistan, the condition should have been the other way around, and a lot of effort should have been made in the creation and implementation of innovative strategies that could help us in competing at the top level.

Unfortunately though, there is no such platform. It is because of this very ignorance and lack of interest in making technical advancements that Pakistan has been left so far behind in hockey and has been thrown out of the international hockey scene. A similar situation can be anticipated for cricket in our country.

What we have failed to realise is the fact that the raw talent cannot always win you titles. In hockey, before the impact of science on it, our stars produced better results on the field; however, this apparent lack of supreme talent was countered by excellent planning in other countries of the world. And in not more than a decade this advanced planning and innovation deprived Pakistan of its supremacy in hockey.

Pakistan during the past few years has been experiencing a similar situation in cricket. There have been examples in international sports that we can learn from; none as good as that of Australia. In 1976 Australian Olympics team failed to win a single gold medal in Montreal, while their neighbours, New Zealand, won two, much to the humiliation of their rivals.

Now, instead of pointing fingers at each other, which is a norm in our country, the Australians setup an institute, the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS), to avoid such debacles in the future. Located in all major cities in Australia, these institutions are created with support from the private sector and the government. Qualified instructors identify talent, encourage them, groom them and develop them into world class athletes.

This extraordinary step paid immediate dividends and Australia's performances in Olympics have been of the highest standard ever since. And not only that, Australians have enjoyed huge success in cricket, hockey, rugby and other sports as well.

Similarly the United Kingdom failed to win more than one gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. This situation was so alarming for sports authorities in the UK that they setup a lottery to fund sporting activities. Every year millions of pounds are invested through this program by the UK Sport's National Lottery to fund athletes and their sport's governing body. Inevitably their athletes have come up with great performances in the three Olympics after Atlanta 96.

Considering all that is being done abroad, I personally feel that it is unfair to expect great performances from our players. And when I say drastic improvement is needed in cricket I mean it, because otherwise it will follow the sorry path of hockey.

We need to develop institutions that could garner champions and that could prepare athletes for the big stage. Since Pakistan has abundance of richly experienced cricketing brains; why not we use them to the optimum level? Why not start with cricket?

With the kind of cricketing experts this country has we could easily work our way to the top.

So I suggest that an institute should be developed; research should be done on ways to improve the performances of athletes so their weaknesses could be pointed out and their strengths could be highlighted.

Devising immaculate strategies, bringing the best out of a player by playing him at the right position has been part and parcel of football for years now. However, similar sort of innovation is not present in cricket. Football managers work hard with their backroom staff to devise cunning strategies; one such example of this sharp-mindedness was on display when few years back Arsenal FC were playing Italian club AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League.

Milan captain Paolo Maldini, who was in his late thirties back then, was playing at left-back that night. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger noticed that and about twenty minutes before the end of the game brought the young Theo Walcott on the field, and deployed him on the right wing. The result was remarkable, Maldini was no match for Walcott's pace and the young Englishman helped his side clinch a crucial victory.

Football is loaded with such examples; even great coaches in cricket use their brain to defeat opponents by exploiting their weaknesses. Famous Australian coach John Buchanan was an expert at outplaying his opponents; he used The Cricket Analyst, a program marketed by Fair Play Company, to great success with the Queensland Sheffield Shield team first and later on with the Australian national side. He actually showed what creativity could bring to the game.

Unfortunately though it seems like the officials, in the Pakistan Cricket Board or any other sports authority in the country for that matter are least concerned about bringing novelty in sports. You see, having a cricket analyst in your team management doesn't solve the problem if he or she could not tell you when is the most effective time to take the 'batting power-play'!

So, instead of playing the blame game, the concerned authorities should think about investing in research, something that could have long-term benefits. We cannot just rely on raw talent any more, something that has backfired in hockey. The sporting authorities, PCB in particular, must realise that enlacing talent with innovation is the only way forward.

In November 2003, India set off to follow a dream to get global recognition as a major player in the world's economy by winning the bid to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

By what they failed to evaluate in their bid summary was the sub-continent mindset of leaving things for the last moment, evident from the remarks of the Indian Sport Minister Manohar Singh Gill, "it is like an Indian wedding where chaos ends in a well-planned ceremony."

On the contrary, daily a new crisis awaits the organisers, let it be the delay in the start of construction of the venues which has been dogged by cost blow-outs and allegations of corruption, fraud and mismanagement.

And collapse of a footbridge at the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, which injured 23 construction workers, merely added to the picture of a country mired in chaos of hosting a global event.

But it is not the first time that a country is facing last minute hurdles, which seem to be un-surpassable.

It has also happened to the nations hosting Olympics, Athens had its share of problems in the build-up to the 2004 Olympics and while costs shot up due to delays in completing a huge building programme and implementing transport and security plans, the event itself was a big success.

Recent 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver got off to a tragic start with the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili and problems with tickets, transportation and the weather continued for days before compelling performances from the athletes put sport back at centre stage and silenced critics.

But all these past example may seem nothing to the organisers of the third biggest sporting event at hand, there is certainly a heavy pressure on Delhi, particularly over conditions at an athletes' village described which told to be unfit for use, yet a last-minute clean-up may assuage concerns. And the state of the construction work has come under question after the collapse of the pedestrian bridge.

Although the assurances of the Indian government are there, you can't stop people from thinking and evaluating.

Another setback for the organisers is that already a number of leading athletes have withdrawn from the Games but no team has pulled out -- although they have started considering their options.

They are having second opinions because of the fact that not many days ago a tourist van was shot at injuring two people in the host city adding to the security concern of the participating nations.

So comes what if, the nation do opt out for it along with the remaining few high profile athletes, the Games will still go ahead making it more difficult to make sport the focus of the stories.

In spite of all the mayhem, which also includes dengue pandemic, India, and Delhi in particular scrambles against the clock to save its face.

When they won, they had hoped that the $6 billion Games -- which is 17 times over the initial estimations, held every four years for members of the former British Empire, as a display of its growing global economic and political clout rivaling that of China.

Instead, the Games have so far brought nothing but shame for the country. Highlighting the weaknesses of the country -- political rivalry, corruption, filth, chaos, and laid back attitude.

The infighting in the political setup hit a new nadir, while talking about the games.

In a recent interview, an opposition politician took a gibe at the current establishment and the organisers.

"Even if the (prime minister) starts wiping the floor, the venues won't be ready for the Games," said opposition politician and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who called the event preparation a "debacle."

Nevertheless, there is some support for the organisers, Australia and England are among the countries who in spite of all this still believe that the games will go on as scheduled and everything will be as planned... Hopefully!

Moreover, for the standard of construction an Australian architect did give his thumbs up for the venues of the game; it came in light of a bridge collapse right outside Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, whose false ceiling had also fallen during the maintenance work earlier.

Still there are countries which have delayed their arrival to the Indian capital.

On a positive note, the stadiums are nearly complete and the Games village kitchen is up and running. The five-star flats for athletes should also be spruced up in time even if that requires a few hundred sweepers and dog catchers working overtime.

With the deadline looming, with nine days remaining (from the time this article was written), India is opting for external help to overcome the minor setbacks, and international community is more than helpful to render help. But this may only be a face saving step, to save India from global shame, external help is bound to balloon the already 17-time surpassed budget adding fuel to the oppositions vengeance.

India, in light of the March 2009 terrorist attack on the team, beefed up the security and is willing to carry out a door-to-door security check for the safety purpose, but so far has been unable to satisfy the athletes -- security is one of the biggest reasons of the pullout from the Games. So far, multiple terrorist organisations have claimed that they will 'burst' the Indian dream.

But New Delhi police have come to the forefront and have said that the security will be foolproof and all possible mishaps will be avoided. Australia have seconded the Indian statement of foolproof security for the Games saying it is 'extensive and well organised'.

But, if the news related to the Games in the past few months be remembered, it was an Australian journalist who showed that how easy it is in the capital city to buy equipment required to make a bomb -- Well they must have closed those shops by now!

From an other angle, the Commonwealth Games are bound to affect the lives of the local residents of the city, who so far have only managed to breathe in the debris caused by the Games.

But the questions still remain: will these games leave Delhi a better city to live in -- as the 1982 Asiad had done? And, can a nation with great power aspirations depend on 'juggad' to see large projects through?

All the queries have been successfully answered only if all the money being pumped in had brought about generational changes in the Capitalís infrastructure or civic facilities. But lack of planning and the pressure to meet deadlines have left big question marks on the lasting infrastructural legacy of the 2010 Games and many of the Delhiites will be keeping their fingers crossed.

In their defence, the organisers have overhauled and that metro lines, power plants, roads (in process) and bridges (falling).

Of course, Delhi by now have started wondering, if all the participating countries show up let alone their super star athletes, if the maintenance patchwork done to glue the, so far, fragile infrastructure together. Provided that rain and dengue do not decide to become the uninvited guests and if terror does not strike, they might be able to pull-off something similar to Beijing.

Delhi 2010 was a step to show the economic might of India and was said to lay the ground for the 2020 Olympic bid, bringing India into the 'big boys' of the world. However, it has managed to be an eye-opener for the committees deciding the host nation for such big events and the debacles of Delhi have given IOC a raised eyebrow over Rio, which will host the 2016 Olympics, a city and a country almost similar to New Delhi and India.

If Delhi manages to patch up the unfinished stadiums, pull up the collapsed roofs, mend the caved-in roads -- courtesy of someone who forgot to lay the new sewer system and power lines first, clean up the filthy athletes' village, protect everyone from the flying inhabitants (mosquitoes), ask rain Gods to not to bless them for twelve days, work it's plans of foolproof security, than there is a chance for us to witness the opening ceremony (promised to be great), listen to A R Rehman's CWG soundtrack and Delhi pulling-off 'some kind' of a Beijing!

There can be a few more exciting sights in cricket than watching 'Boom Boom' Afridi bat at his best and, whenever he does, the spectators at the stadium are on their feet, cheering his displays of lusty big-hitting.

In the fourth One-day International against England at Lord's last week, Shahid Afridi became only the third Pakistani and 16th player overall to play 300 or more One-day Internationals. In a career spanning fourteen years, Afridi joined fellow countrymen Wasim Akram and Inzamam-ul-Haq in achieving that landmark.

Former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin was the first player to complete 300 ODI matches against Australia at Dhaka in 1998. He appeared in 334 One-day Internationals.

Sri Lankan master blaster Sanath Jayasuriya holds the record of playing most ODIs with 444 while India's little master Sachin Tendulkar is just behind him with 442 ODIs. Former Pakistan captains Inzamam-ul-Haq (378) and Wasim Akram (356) occupy the third and fourth positions in the list of most capped ODI players.

In 300 One-day Internationals, Shahid Afridi has scored 6,321 runs at an average of 23.94 with the help of six hundreds and 30 fifties. In his 282 ODI innings he has hit a record 276 sixes and 583 boundaries at a strike rate of 113.32. His strike rate has remained over 100 throughout his career.

There is little doubt that Afridi is an entertainer. But for quite some time, his performance as a bowler has been better than his batting. He has taken 281 wickets at an average of 35.03. His best bowling performance was 6-38 against Australia in Dubai last year.

Afridi made his ODI debut on October 2, 1996 against Kenya in Nairobi. He conceded 32 runs in 10 overs without taking a wicket while he did not get a chance to show what he could do with the bat as he was at No 9 in the order and Pakistan won the game by four wickets.

But he did not have to wait for long. Afridi shot to international fame when his second ODI against Sri Lanka, when he scored the fastest ODI hundred in 37 deliveries. His knock included 11 towering sixes and six boundaries. However, after that record-breaking achievement, Afridi had to wait for 57 matches before getting his second hundred against India in September 1998 in Toronto.

Afridi is also a member of the unique all-rounders club, having scored over 5,000 runs and taken over 250 wickets in One-day Internationals -- a feat achieved only by Jayasuriya and South Africa's Jacques Kallis.

He also holds a joint record with Brian Lara for the third fastest ODI century which came off in 45 balls in April 2005 and resulted in Ravi Shastri giving him the nickname of 'Boom Boom' Afridi. Apart from that, he holds the record for four of the top eight fastest ODI half-centuries -- twice doing it in 18 balls and twice in 20 balls.

For most of us, the Olympic Games are all about winning. The athletes put in dedicated efforts to reach the Olympic podium which is considered as the apex of competitive sport. Though a gold medal is reserved for the best team or athlete, there is also an Olympic honour that has so far been bestowed upon only ten athletes since 1964.

This honour is called the 'Pierre De Coubertin medal', which is a distinction awarded to those athletes who demonstrate extraordinary courage, dedication and sportsmanship during the Olympics. Eugenio Monti of Italy was the first athlete who won this medal in 1964 when he lent his sled to his competitors Tony Nash and Robin Dixon who broke theirs. Nash's team won gold whilst Monti's team took bronze.

It was the spirit that Pierre De Coubertin, the father of modern Olympics, had always dreamt of and was aptly transformed in the philosophy of the first ever 'Youth Olympics' by the current IOC president Jacques Rogge, which ended on a colorful note in Singapore on August 26 2010. The IOC president during the closing press-conference at the Marina Bay Sands said that Youth Olympics had vastly exceeded his highest expectations.

The Youth Olympics were televised in 166 countries and 45,000 articles were written by some 1,200 journalists. Pakistan were amongst those lucky 98 Olympic Committees out of the 204 that return home with at least one medal.

Pakistan participated in the mega event with a relatively smaller contingent, comprising of six officials and twenty players, headed by Director Army Sports, Brig Iqtidar Naseer. Besides the silver medal in field hockey, the other consolation was the fifth position of Maham Aftab in women's taekwondo. Pakistani swimmer Ghulam Mohammad finished at the tail in his event.

Irfan Butt, the son of Secretary General Pakistan Weight Lifting Association could not participate in any event due to unavoidable backache, thus achieving nothing except a joy ride to Singapore on state's expense.

The best part for Pakistan was not just a token representation in the first Youth Olympics but a real eye-opener about the realities of modern day sports. Brig Iqtidar commenting on the out come and experience of the games said that Pakistan needs to put in consented efforts to achieve worthwhile results in future international competitions. Iqtidar rightly highlighted the importance of sports in the national youth policy that needs visionary direction and patronage.

He was highly impressed to see the role of Mont Youth, a team of dynamic students who were out on a mission to spread the Singapore 2010 spirit to everyone around through the means of blogging.

Another unique aspect of the Youth Olympics was the participation of 46 prolific athletes of the past who were officially appointed as athlete role-models by their respective international federations. They included greats like Pole-Vault champion Sergey Bubka, Triathlon champion Hamish Carter, Swimming great Alexander Popov, 800-metre World record-holder Wilson Kipketer and many others.

The Youth Olympics also organised a culture and education program (CEP) where Singapore played host to an international group of 30 young ambassadors and 60 CEP champions. The Singapore Sports School (SSS) which has so far produced 172 Olympians was forthcoming in establishing the Singapore friendship camp with a goal to promote Olympic values amongst the participants and providing them with a unique experience and an opportunity to form life-long friendships through sport. The Pakistani contingent had a close look of the Youth Olympics philosophy where education and sports goes hand in hands.

Pakistani sport at present is devoid of icons. The post-flood scenario is grim yet full of opportunities. Sport is an excellent tool of social rehabilitation for the youth of flood-hit areas and Imran Khan now seems all set to use this tool as one of its central pillar in his rehabilitation programme for the affectees.

The first Youth Olympics were yet another wakeup call for Pakistani sport bureaucracy that may have very few dedicated persons like Iqtidar who are in for a change for the betterment of system. But how long a lone wolf can survive against the deeply entrenched sport mafia in the country would be clearly visible in the second Youth Olympics in Naujing in 2014.

sdfsports@gmail.com

Olympics are a stage where a nation's performance determines its standing among the countries of the world as far as sports are concerned. After the creation of Pakistan, the country could not win a medal in its first two appearances, in 1948 and 1952. But from 1956 to 1992, Pakistan always figured on the Olympic medal table. Apart from 1988, when Pakistan's sole medal came in boxing, it was the national game of hockey which brought home the gold medal in each of those editions of the world's biggest sports event.

Unfortunately the sagging fortunes in hockey have meant that in the last four Olympics, Pakistan have had the dubious distinction of not being able to win a single medal. But at the Youth Olympics in Singapore recently, the Pakistan's hockey team showed that there is still light at the end of the tunnel.

The hockey team had made it to the biggest youth sports gala of the world by winning the Youth Asia Cup held in Myanmar last year and their silver medal in Singapore made it possible for Pakistan to figure in the medal's table of the inaugural Youth Olympics.

The six teams in the hockey competition first played each other in a single league followed by position matches. The Pakistani lads easily swept aside their first three opponents; Ghana (6-3), Chile (15-1) and Singapore (4-1).

Next came their toughest assignment against the mighty Australians. And after trailing in the first-half, Pakistan capitulated to severe Australian pressure to lose 5-2.

Their last tie against Belgium thus became a do-or-die affair with both the sides vying for the second position and a place in the final. But Arsalan Qadir notched his ninth and tenth goals of the campaign as Pakistan won 3-2.

Australia were overwhelming favourites for the final but a resolute display saw Pakistan hold on to their lead, given to them by Mohammad Umair in the 10th, till the 47th minute mark.

With the contest seemingly heading into extra-time, the Aussies broke Pakistani hearts with a penalty-corner goal three minutes before the end.

Nevertheless, the hockey team had done the nation proud with a glorious performance that saw them miss out on the final hurdle.

Interestingly, there is a link between this medal at the inaugural Youth Olympics and country's last medal at the Olympics. Team manager Khawaja Junaid was a member of the bronze winning Pakistan hockey team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Recently, Aisamul Haq has been in the news all the time and is being deservedly greeted and rewarded. The achievement of the youth hockey team, however, is no less and should be acclaimed as such.