Usman Anwar, Director General Sports Punjab, has said that on the directive of the Punjab Government, SBP is orgainsing Sports Festival 2012 throughout the province to revive the sports culture.
Talking to journalists here on Friday, the director general said that in the initial phase the sports activities are being organised at the Union Council level and around 4310 grounds, which were giving a deserted look, are being used to hold the Sports Festival matches.
“The main purpose of holding such an activity is to weed out talent from the lower level,” he maintained.
On the laying of new austro turf at the National Hockey Stadium, Usman said the work at the stadium will be completed in two months time while the pending works on the sports facilities in the province will soon be completed through public-private partnership and all the resources will be utlised for the promotion of sports in the province to keep the youth secure from bad habits.
Meanwhile, on the fifth day of Punjab Sports Festival, the competitions among various teams union councils all over Punjab continued.
In Lahore, Model Town UC 139 teams participated in cricket semi-finals between Shahid XI vs Rehman XI which was won by Rehman XI while in the second semi-final Zeeshan XI beat Mohsin XI while Rehman XI beat Zeeshan XI in the final.
In UC 127, 131 and 99 final cricket matches were held in which Yasir XI, Butt XI and Waseem XI won the matches. In badminton, union council 126 A and 126 B teams played in the tournament. Amanullah beat Abdul Munim 21-16, 21-10. In the doubles, Shahzad Liaqat and Talha beat Ahsan and Esat 21-15, 21-16. In Cantt Shalamar, cricket matches were held among union councils 46 and 47 teams in which Mujahid XI and Khurram XI won their matches. In union council 46, Saqib, Waqas, Shahzad and Ilyas won the badminton tournaments.
In Lahore, union councils 86, 87, 88 and 89 played volleyball, athletics and hockey competitions while in Union council 84, five cricket matches were held among Allaudin XI vs Anwaar XI,Waqas XI vs Malik Irfan XI,CCB XI vs Tariq Gujar XI,Sarwar Gujar XI vs Ghulam Rasool XI and Allaudin XI vs Anwaar Qasim XI. Union council 85, 86 and 87 cricket teams played single match each.
In Sheikhupura, 101 union councils participated in cricket and kabaddi. At Rawalpindi, all 344 union councils participated in athletics, badminton, cricket, football, hockey, volleyball and kabaddi.
In Chakwal, 68 union councils played athletics, badminton, cricket, football, hockey and kabaddi. In Attock, 72 union councils participated in all games. In Jhelum, 54 union councils teams played all games. In Bahawalpur, 107 union councils teams participated in kabaddi, football, hockey and cricket. Around eight union councils of Bahawalnagar participated in all the games whereas 122 union councils of Rahim Yar Khan participated in kabaddi and hockey. In Gujranwala, 27 union councils participated in kabaddi, football, volleyball, badminton and athletics.
