The year 2019 was not a good one as far as the growth of Pakistan’s sports is concerned. Most of the time national players remained idle. Because of no funding from the state national federations also had to face big issues in sending their athletes to highly important international assignments.

Due to restructuring process Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) also failed to deliver. The Board could not get a permanent Director General during the whole year. A non-technocrat has occupied the PSB DG seat. The PSB later in the year released some grant to a few federations which was not enough to cope with the pressing demands.

Neither foreign coaches’ services were taken, nor were foreign training tours given to players. The beautiful Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad only offered entertainment to the PSB staff as no camps were held.

Some players complain that the Islamabad sports facilities are for members and the country’s athletes who hoist national flag on foreign soil are not given priority to use its gymnasium and other facilities.

Early in the year, Pakistan signed an accord with Saudi Arabia during Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s visit to Pakistan for exchange programmes for players and coaches but it is not known how much progress has been made so far.

Pakistan failed to qualify for 2020 Tokyo Olympics in hockey. And this has again put a massive pressure on the country’s sports authorities as far as Olympics participation is concerned.

But fortunately three shooters Gulfam Joseph, Mohammad Khalil Akhtar and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and record-breaking javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem made Pakistan proud when they qualified for Tokyo Olympics.

The 19-year-old Joseph served as flag-bearer of Pakistan’s contingent during 13th South Asian Games opening ceremony in Nepal following his qualification to Olympics.

Arshad’s feat of 86.29m throw in Nepal’s SAG was the biggest achievement of the year which made him a rare athlete in Pakistan.

A few other players can also win Olympics seats. Olympian judoka Shah Hussain has already achieved continental quota through his superb showing in a handful of qualifiers in 2019. He is ranked 42nd in Olympics rankings and he needs only to maintain hts leading continental position in minus 100kg till the end of the qualifiers at the end of May.

Experienced karateka Saadi Abbas, who stands 23rd in Olympics rankings in minus 75kg, did well in various qualifiers, and had improved his position but fell again after missing a few events. He is determined to take part in the remaining events to write history for the nation by qualifying for the world’s most prestigious event.

Taekwondo fighter Haroon Khan and boxers will also press for Olympics seats through continental qualifiers early next year.

The country’s leading wrestler and two-time World Beach Wrestling Championships gold medallist Mohammad Inam added to his achievements in 2019 when he won gold in the inaugural World Beach Games in Doha after beating Georgian Dato Marsagishvili in the final.

The country’s leading snooker player Mohammad Asif reclaimed his world crown when he defeated Jefrey Roda of Philippines 8-5 in Antalya, Turkey, in the final of the IBSF World Snooker Championship last month.

Asif had secured the first world title in 2012 in Bulgaria when he had beaten England’s Gary Wilson.

The country’s professional fighter Mohammad Waseem won two fights to climb to the fifth spot in the International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight world ranking this year.

He knocked-out Filipino boxer Conrado Tenamore in Dubai on September 13 before edging former world champion Ganigan Lopez of Mexico, also in Dubai, on November 22.

Pakistan took 32 gold, 41 silver and 59 bronze to finish fourth behind India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in the 13th South Asian Games — our worst ever performance.

The 32 SAG gold medalists are:

Karate: Shahida, Mohammad Awais, Saadi Abbas, Nouman Ahmed, women team kumite, men team kumite

Athletics: Uzair Rehman, Mohammad Naeem, Mehboob Ali, Najma Parveen, Arshad Nadeem

Weightlifting: Talha Talib, Hider Ali, Usman Amjad Rathore, Hanzala Dastgir Butt, Nooh Dastgir Butt

Wrestling: Inayatullah, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Inam

Shooting: Centre fire pistol team, 3 x position rifle team, 10m air rifle team event

Taekwondo: Shahzeb, Haroon Khan, Rab Nawaz

Wushu: Mohammad Amjad Iqbal, Maaz Khan, Sajid Hussain

Judo: Shah Hussain, Hamid Ali

Squash: Tayyab Aslam (men’s singles), men’s team event

Handball: men’s gold.

Pakistan won silver in men’s volleyball when they went down to India in the final. The defeat in the decider was quite unexpected as Pakistan had beaten India in last year’s Asian Games and recently held Asian Championships in Iran.

Kabaddi performance has raised many eyebrows. Being a strong kabaddi nation finishing with a bronze in SAG and losing even to Sri Lanka was a huge disappointment. Pakistan will need to arrest the decline of the Asian style kabaddi otherwise other nations will leave us much behind.

Pakistan’s sports need to be governed skilfully. A huge cleavage was seen recently between the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the Ministry of IPC. It was this hostile working relationship between the two bodies that affected the country’s sports in 2019.

The PSB finalised the SAG contingent list without taking into confidence the federations and POA. The PSB sponsored its own people while refusing to sponsor those people recommended by the NOC Pakistan. It was a rare happening.

Another vital happening of 2019 was the POA elections held on November 26 in which Lt Gen (retd) Syed Arif Hasan was re-elected for the fifth successive four-year tenure.

In what was mostly a barren year as far as sports is concerned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s initiative to organise the 33rd National Games in November was a huge plus and that also helped Pakistan win medals in South Asian Games. No IPC sports wing top official took pain to visit Peshawar for witnessing the spectacle. How can the IPC ministry claim that it is the custodian of Pakistan’s sports? Prime Minister Imran Khan should ask IPC what it did for sports development in 2019.