These days the state is busy handing over cash prizes to the national stars who won medals in the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal last year. It’s a good step from the ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) to honour the cream of Pakistan’s sports at a time when the nation is fighting against COVID-19 pandemic.

But a big issue is that the athletes are told during the gathering by the ministry that the provinces would have to play a role in giving incentives to the players following devolution of sports. At the same time the ministry vows that with the meagre budget the central government also will try its best to play a key role in sports development. The problem is: how will provinces feed elite athletes and federations? The federating units already have been working at grassroots level. They have a number of provincial associations affiliated with them. They will work on the sports development in their own domain and inside the province or will also help federations and mainstream athletes of the country. The government itself is confused. Despite devolution it has left a margin for the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) by not devolving the Board’s infrastructure in provinces to the federating units. You cannot convince provinces to support elite athletes and national federations. National federations are affiliated with the PSB and provinces will never back them as federations are working on elite athletes. It is the responsibility of the central government to fund federations and top athletes so that they could plan for major events and implement those plans.

IPC minister Dr Fehmida Mirza should hold a meeting on this important issue so that it could be clarified who would run the country’s sports under devolution and how it could be run.

These days majority of national federations are not getting a single penny from the central government and have almost lost their capability to plan for international events because of lack of resources. Sponsors are not that easy to be captured by the federations.

The IPC feels happy that it is handing cash awards to the athletes who won medals in the 13th South Asian Games.

The IPC should note that South Asia is the most backward zone in sports. And lifting medals at this level is not a big achievement. It should note that Pakistan stood fourth overall. How many medals have we won during the last few years in the Asian Championships and World Championships? Our sports growth is only limited to South Asia and upto a certain extent to the Commonwealth level where in a few sports disciplines we can lift medals because of the weakness of those disciplines in that particular zone.

Once Pakistani athletes start winning medals at the Asian and world level only then can we start thinking about medals in Olympics.

We should think beyond South Asia. We will have to form a policy like India has framed and has started developing its sports through an ambitious “Khelo India” programme.

We are far behind India in sports development. In India, players make millions in a calendar year, even at junior level. The elite athletes have several sponsors backing them besides enjoying state and provincial patronage. We should decide who is to run sports. If this is not decided we cannot move ahead. Federations also will have to think how they could play an effective role without funding from the federal government. There are some federations which can generate their resources but majority cannot do that.

Under sports ministry the things were not that bad before devolution. We lost a number of world class players due to poor sports system as their careers ended without their doing anything praiseworthy for the nation. Because of poor sports system our hockey has been destroyed, boxing utterly damaged and squash annihilated. We had a name in these sports.

One thing which I would like to mention here is that athletes are receiving cash awards for winning medals in the South Asian Games, but their coaches have been ignored. Coaches and trainers are cardinal parts of a sports team. They should be honoured as well. The state should incorporate at the earliest in its policy incentives for coaches. Not only the developmental coaches but grassroots coaches also should have share in cash awards.

Pakistan Wushu Federation (PWF) President Malik Iftikhar has formed an organisation in the name of ‘rights of sports coaches” which will press the state for making a policy so that coaches’ rights could be safeguarded.

73.alam@gmail.com