Arshad is the true Pakistan

It was 2500 years ago that Heraclitus defined change as the only constant. As nations gaining independence with or even after us prospered, Pakistan’s only constant has remained the apathy of our power-elite towards the people. This has translated into the regression of all things that define a nation-state.

This sets up a starker contrast when one remembers the unbounded aspirations of our earlier years. Sports is something that invigorates and binds a nation. Despite our nascence, the sportsmen that we had were the treasure troves of Pakistan.

Jahangir Khan, one of our many squash greats, dominated the game winning the World Open six times and the British Open ten times. He won 555 consecutive matches. As recorded by Guinness World Records, it remains the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sport.

Pakistan hockey was a permanent feature at the international victory podiums. Winning eight hockey Olympic medals, three of them gold, Pakistan won the first four world cups. Currently ranked 16th, Pakistan last won a hockey medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Tellingly, our hockey team could not even qualify for the ongoing Paris Olympics where, with a population of 245 million, we sent a ‘contingent’ of seven athletes. It translates into one athlete to 35 million people. Eleven officials in the group outnumber the athletes. Palestine, with 5.5 million people, is represented by eight athletes despite the genocidal atrocities being perpetrated on them.

Transcending race, politics and adversity, sports unite a country. Nelson Mandela famously said that sports could create hope where there was only despair and that it had the power to change the world. Fearing retaliation for their brutal oppression, post-apartheid South Africa saw white people fleeing the country.

Mandela, statesman extraordinaire that he was, understood South Africa’s progress hinged on creating what he termed the rainbow nation. He forgave those who had incarcerated him for 26 years. His followers – no Mandelas – wanted to abolish everything white. Foremost was rugby, a game introduced and loved by the Afrikaners.

Despite extreme pressure to do away with the Springboks, South Africa’s national rugby team, Mandela refused to submit. He knew that abolishing Springboks would be the antithesis of his rainbow nation dream. With South Africa hosting the Rugby World Cup for the first time in 1995, Mandela took it upon himself to unify a fractured nation with the inclusive slogan of ‘One Team, One Country’.

South Africa reached the final and was set for a showdown with New Zealand. As the players were getting ready, Mandela entered the dressing room donned in the Afrikaner team captain Francois Pienaar’s number 6 jersey. He met all the players and stopped before Chester Williams, the team’s only player of color. Mandela said: “I am proud of you. Make the rest of South Africa proud too.”

The Springboks defeated New Zealand. Mandela, clad in team colours, gave away the trophy. As Pienaar hoisted the cup Springboks, once an Afrikaner symbol, became the pride of South Africa.

In 2019, South Africa became rugby world champions again. The trophy was received by Siya Kolisi, the first South African Rugby team captain of colour. Can anyone’s foresight and fortitude outshine Mandela’s spellbinding legacy?

Sports have evolved far beyond self-made balls and ragtag teams. They are now an essential tool for social, cultural and economic development. Sportspersons are vaunted ambassadors. Their countries are identified through them. Yusuf Dikec, a Turkish shooter and silver medalist at the Paris Games, has been dubbed ‘Cool Dad’ and ‘the Turkish John Wick’. He has become the symbol of Turkey.

Sports has evolved into multi-billion dollar business empires with leagues and clubs that supplement and complement, among a host of other entities, the media, sports tourism and sports equipment and apparel manufacturers. The most important aspect is that nothing is more cohesive for a nation than sports. We still relive the 92 World Cup win and the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Today, our joy and pride is Arshad Nadeem. For want of support, he could have forsaken his dreams and aspirations but refused to do so. It was just months ago that he had reluctantly aired his inability to change his damaged eight-year-old javelin.

Before stepping out into the packed Stade de France, Arshad trained at the dilapidated non-air-conditioned gym of the Punjab University. The oppressive heat was compounded by this facility lacking even the bare essentials he needed. Could anyone have ever imagined in their wildest dreams that this dehydrated lonely figure would catapult Pakistan into what had otherwise remained ever-elusive glory?

Arshad’s Herculean effort makes it all the more commendable because it was a lonely and arduous trek indeed. This aspect should be remembered by our otherwise ever-detached and self-centered power elite making a beeline for his bandwagon now. Success, they say, has many fathers.

Wrapped in the national flag, Arshad Nadeem broke down in tears with immense joy and pride for the gold medal he gifted Pakistan before its independence day. The tears also symbolized the people of Pakistan in what were the heartbreaks of an individual, who did not let any limitation hinder his javelin from being Allama Iqbal’s Shaheen as our crescent and star soared its way into the annals of history.

It is individuals like Arshad Nadeem who remain devoid of state support, yet their fervor and resilience bring glory to Pakistan. Transforming our despair into hope, our pessimism into optimism, they are the silver lining to our apathetic cheerleaders. They are the true Pakistan.

The writer is a freelance contributor. He can be reached at: miradnanaziz@gmail.com