Play at your own risk
What would be more disappointing than the reality that the hockey team of Pakistan could not qualify this time for Olympics 2016 being held in Brazil and only 7 Pakistani participants (2 athletes, 2 swimmers, 2 shooters, and 1 judo player) – one of the smallest groups – are representing in Olympics. The hockey that is our national game and the team that once won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics is no more in the race of the sporting world’s biggest event.
The reasons could be multifold, ranging from insufficient allocation of government funding in time to raising questions on the mismanagement and non-serious attitude of Pakistan Hockey Federation to the dearth of training facilities to athletes lacking motivation; the list goes on. The basic reason is of priorities. If it were any other project, such as infrastructure, which the current government is so invested in, it would have been prioritised and improved much earlier. Sports are a sign of living, thriving nations. Maybe we don’t want to come under that title or maybe the decision makers are not interested in it. Priorities set the serious attitude towards a certain thing and ours are different.
What’s most shocking is that Pakistani people, who protest over petty things and block roads, are not even shocked over our hockey team not representing Pakistan in Olympics. I haven’t even read a single status on Facebook by anyone condemning Pakistan. No one, but our sportsmen, is bothered.
Hockey is one sport, what about the other 8,000 sports that are being played in the world? We are hardly producing athletes, swimmers, judo players, wrestlers, cyclists, boxers, etc.
And then arises the issue of motivation: why would sportsmen give their blood, sweat and tears to sports when they know that they wouldn’t get anything worthwhile in return and a sportsman has no value following retirement. Mohammad Ashiq is a living example in front of all of us. He is a former Pakistani cyclist who participated in Olympics two times; 1960 and 1964, has won a silver medal in Asian games and several other medals nationally and internationally. Nowadays, he drives a rickshaw and struggles to make ends meet. On the rickshaw, his history is written and pictures with prime ministers of Pakistan are pasted. It sends a message to players and young athletes that even if you scale great heights of success and become a national sports hero, you may end up driving a rickshaw for your daily living when you reach retirement. There are many more such examples of the horrific disrespect we show our sportsmen and this is the main reason that parents then don’t allow their children in our society to seriously pursue such sports, where talent goes wasted and unrealised. When a sportsman wins any international title, he is given media coverage like never before, government takes pride in it, people distribute sweets and celebrate being a national of Pakistan. What happens when they retire? Government does not give heed to them when they retire and they are bound to live out the rest of their lives in turmoil. Mohammad Ashiq has also made multiple appeals and sent applications to the government for arranging for his monthly pension for his service in railways before coming into sports, but all in vain. If he were made a trainer, a lot of young cyclists would have taken inspiration from him. Rather, he was made a sign of fear for aspiring athletes around the country; an unspoken message of “choose sport as profession at your own risk”. Sad!
If sports are made a major priority in this country, not only talent will show up in different kinds of sports and our youth will get a direction, the country’s international status will also enjoy a rapid rise. When our team will visit other countries, any minister can go to support their national heroes and meet equal status personalities from other countries just to build relations in an informal environment. Sports represents hard work and unity; this framework provides us an opportunity to strengthen regional and overseas ties and Pakistan’s international loneliness will also dwindle. At this stage where Pakistan is passing through a lot of hurdles from outside, Pakistan like never before needs to make its relations strong on an international level, and sports can greatly contribute to success in this field.
Moreover, the time where our country is striving hard to defeat terrorism and working towards a more developed and progressive situation, sports provide an outlet for entertainment and relaxation, a strong sense of unity and identity to our country on an international platform, and hope to the people of Land of the Pure, who so ever has interest, real talent and aptitude in sports.
