Arshad’s coach getting meagre salary from PSB

KARACHI: Syed Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari, coach of javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem, gets only Rs15,000 monthly package from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for his meritorious services to prepare the premier athlete and the country’s Olympics medal hope.

Fayyaz, a former international athlete, has been working with Arshad for the last six years. He has been with Arshad since he was a raw talent. He honed his skills, enabled him to set several records and eventually helped him qualify for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Arshad qualified for the Tokyo Games through his stunning 86.29 metre throw during the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal. He bettered that with an 86.38 metre throw in an international event in Mashhad, Iran, last April. This was also a record throw of Iran’s event which fetched gold for the Khanewal-born athlete.

Under Fayyaz, Arshad not only set numerous records but also earned several medals in international circuit, including a bronze in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

Arshad is now in the 90 metre block. And Fayyaz is quite confident that Arshad will break this block to earn a medal for Pakistan in the Tokyo Games.

‘The News’ has learnt that during his entire association with Arshad and despite superb performances from the athlete Fayyaz has never been credited and encouraged by the government with any cash award. The services of the man behind a world-level athlete have always been ignored.

The PSB has stuck to its policy of paying Rs15,000 a month to the employed coaches and Rs25,000 to the unemployed coaches. Fayyaz gets Rs15,000 from WAPDA, of which he is an employee.

He deserves more. His great efforts have created a hope for Pakistan to earn an Olympic medal. If Arshad gets a medal in Tokyo it will be the first such instance in Pakistan’s athletics history.

An ordinary foreign coach gets 5000 US dollars, so giving Rs15,000 to a home-grown coach working on the top seed is a strange policy.

When this correspondent approached the PSB Director General Col (retd) Asif Zaman he agreed that coaches’ incentives needed to be improved. “Yes, coaches need more incentives. We will work on it,” Asif told ‘The News’.

“There is no doubt that coaches have a big role in the players’ development. In the new policy we are going to give more incentives to players and coaches,” said Asif, a former international squash player.

When Fayyaz was contacted he said he works for the national cause. “I work for the national cause and everybody knows this. I have worked dedicatedly with Arshad and made him a solid athlete. I believe in God and He will give me the reward eventually,” Fayyaz told ‘The News’.

“I am happy that my efforts have started bearing fruit and Arshad has started producing quality results. He is a good learner and I hope he will bring more laurels for the country,” Fayyaz said.

Arshad these days is preparing for the Tokyo Games at the PSB coaching Centre in Lahore under Fayyaz.