While all sports lovers in the country realise the economic and political difficulties confronted by the PTI government and appreciate the efforts being made to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people, the sports fraternity is anxiously waiting for the national leadership to unveil its vision for promotion of sports in the country.

Unfortunately, the entire subject of sports in Pakistan is viewed in a narrow-minded manner. If one looks at the development plans offered by Planning Commission of Pakistan and tries to figure out the importance of sports in the national agenda, not much can be cited in terms of promotion of sports, their linkage with the national objectives and their contribution in elevating the Human Development Index (HDI).

The situation is equally disheartening when one looks at the revised national sports policy, which quite often mentions development of sports at grassroots, but instead of giving a roadmap of sports development, it only mentions promoting sports activities at club and district levels.

The policy also spells administrative roles of PSB, provincial sports boards, civil administration and sports federations, but doesn’t say anything about developing talent pools, sports nurseries, centres of sports excellence, training of coaches and technical staff and creating a national sports grid.

The national sports policy briefly talks about tax exemption for sports donations but doesn’t highlight the public-private partnership model which is vital for developing sports infrastructure in the country.

Pakistan sports desperately need private funding, management skills and subsidies.

After the success of PSL, leagues of kabaddi, wrestling and football are coming up in the country. But sports other than cricket have limited talent available to support any sustainable and quality sports entertainment for viewers and appeal for the sponsors.

Decision makers in the country have time and again failed to realise the great potential of sports as an industry and jumping-off-point for the distracted youth to find jobs.

Creating jobs and developing sports as industry in any country is easier said than done. No country has ever been able to achieve it without laying the correct building blocks. The building blocks are well-programmed sports in education institutions from elementary to university levels. Missing a single step in this journey will hurt the process.

For instance, investing in university sports by initiating university sports competitions without any solid base of school and college sports and availability of coaches to conduct university sports professionally would be an exercise in futility.

If we are to produce athletes of international standard, we have to rethink our approach. The foundations of any sports system starts with the motor skill development of young children through participation in sporting activities at an appropriate age. It is around age group fourteen when sport-specific talent is identified in a child and his skills are groomed for a specific sport.

By the time a child reaches college he has acquired sufficient skills and his fundamentals are grounded in correct principles of the game. This is the stage where he is exposed to game specialist coaches and trainers.

The development part of any athlete is definitely long. Professional players are not products of chance or luck but a result of sustained effort, scientific coaching and a long gestation period.

Like most of the previous governments the present regime is also looking for quick-fix solutions. Unfortunately, we wasted enough precious time, trying to find short cuts for achieving success. Alas, there is none.

More depressing is the fact that the present government is headed by a renowned sportsman and the youth is looking at him for a holistic sports policy that could lead to new job opportunities and professional sports environment.

Right now there is no silver lining at the skyline of Pakistan sports. The reason for this despondency is the lack of government interest in development of sports as an industry. With this approach, I am afraid Pakistan sports will not be bolstered.