Tennis great Iftikhar’s family stage own show

ISLAMABAD: It was really surprising or more upsetting to see former great Khawaja Iftikhar family staging a show of their own, on the sidelines of ranking tennis final thus forgetting the real teaching of their predecessor and that surely would have been to give value to the game rather than personalities.

It was really heartening to see a small museum being established by the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) in remembrance of former All India amateur champion. The occasion provided good opportunity to his family to speak the volume of services each of them was rendered to keep his name alive. Among these individual exuberance and big talks on the occasion of museum ceremony, they forget the teaching of former amateur champion and that is to give value to the game first. Pakistan No 1 Aqeel Khan and Muzammil Murtaza were engaged in an exciting battle at the Centre Court of PTF Complex when in the middle of second set Khawaja Iftikhar family started staging their own show within Complex premises as if the final has no value for them.

No one took pain to wait for the conclusion of the event and players in the middle were left a bit stunned to see empty chairs around. “They have tried to highjack the final. They should have waited for the completion of the final or should have inaugurated the museum and their speeches-packed function ahead of the final. After all the Federal Cup men’s final was more important as we were in the middle of putting up our best effort,” one of the finalists said while talking to The News after the title decider.

One of the speakers during the museum inauguration ceremony rightly pointed that the success of life is not the money you make but the family you raise. The same way it is respect for the game that is more important when you pay tributes to one of the former champions. After all Khawaja Iftikhar’s forte was tennis.

All his life his effort had been to promote the cause of the game. The best way to remember him is to give true value to the game-sadly that was never on display Sunday at the PTF Complex.