Sports have declined at a break-neck pace in Pakistan over the last three decades. Our hockey team as per FIH ranking is 17th in the world. There is only one squash player of Pakistan in the PSA world top 50 at the moment. The list goes on.

The world of sports has changed considerably over the last three decades. With the advent of the Digital Age in the 1990s, scientific approach towards almost every aspect of life, including sports, has become a necessity to attain excellence.

Human behavior needed to allow technology to transform the sports landscape. Countries who were receptive to and supportive of this change took tough decisions, and eventually results started speaking for themselves.

Change can be very difficult, chaotic and immensely disruptive as it may fundamentally alter the way you look at things.

In times of change, the power dynamics become overt, and at times ruthless.

In sports, the historical epicenter of national power used to be sports federations/ associations/ bodies. They still are in many ways. But in times of change, sports federations had to concede space to make way for the private sector.

English Premier League in the early 1990s is a classic example of how the all-powerful Football Association (FA) had to make way for the football clubs’ led model of the football league to prevail. It is now one of the world’s top most sports commercial properties. With some time lag, South Asia picked up its own format of sports leagues. Although Indian Premier League (IPL) was the first prominent sports league to take off in the subcontinent, it was the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) and Indian Super League (ISL) of football in 2014 that paved the way for the private sector-led model of sports leagues in this region.

In Pakistan, although Pakistan Super League (PSL) was the first prominent league to take off in 2016, it was the Super Kabaddi League (SKL) in 2018 that laid the foundations of the private sector-led model of sports leagues. Super Kabaddi League was successfully held and received national and international accolades. The owners of Super Kabaddi League are Strawberry Sports Management, a professionally run sports organization. The company is into sports promotion through leagues, events and academies.

A few months ago Strawberry Sports Management and Pakistan Wrestling Federation jointly announced Pakistan’s first Freestyle Wrestling League. Besides this, Strawberry Sports Management has successfully conducted hockey, baseball, and rugby events and run a football academy at grassroots level.

Women Premier League of football is planned for post Covid-19 times and it is already receiving favourable response.

In recent weeks, it became apparent that the power struggle for sports in Pakistan has taken a full swing as one of the national sports federations (Pakistan Volleyball Federation) in tandem with Pakistan Olympic Association (the torch bearer of the Olympic Charter in Pakistan) went on a collision course with Strawberry Sports Management.

It is assumed that Strawberry Sports Management and Pakistan Volleyball Federation entered into a long-term agreement whereby Pakistan Volleyball Federation were to act as Technical Collaborators to provide a pool of players, and all necessary technical support for the successful conduct of the League that is owned by Strawberry Sports Management. Owing to the non-provision of the said information by Pakistan Volleyball Federation the League got delayed but eventually it was the federation itself that filed for contract termination.

The court declared this an act of wrongful termination and gave indefinite stay till such time the responsibilities were assigned.

As the matter went into Court appointed Arbitration, the federation went on to launch a complaint against Strawberry Sports Management by writing a formal letter to POA, requesting it to intervene and take Strawberry Sports Management to task.

Within a short span of time, the Secretary General of POA issued a strong, one-sided letter and circulated it to the entire sports fraternity of Pakistan, lambasting Strawberry Sports Management and endorsing the position of the volleyball body.

This was all done while the Court appointed Arbitration was still in play. Clearly pushed towards the wall, Strawberry Sports Management issued a legal notice to the federation, POA and their key office bearers, accusing them of defaming it.

The act of Secretary General of POA is clearly outside the purview of the very sports body he represents. It is not the mandate of POA to intervene into agreements of national sports federations with the private sector.

The actions of both the federation and POA are damaging to sports in Pakistan.

Sports leagues create livelihoods, create space for innovation and in due course generate possibilities to re-imagine sports. Pakistan is a very young nation as more than 60% of her population is under 30 years of age.

Allowing sports to prosper is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Sports can turn our huge population into a profit-making asset.

In the wake of the recent announcement by the POA together with the Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) of holding SAF Games in Pakistan in 2023, it is high time that President POA took tough decisions and brought professional manpower in his team.

The monopolistic actions of the volleyball body and POA may be noticed by the Competition Commission of Pakistan in due course.

By throwing details of a bilateral agreement into the public domain and terminating the contract, the two bodies have invited scrutiny into their own affairs.

This may not be the beginning of the end for the sports hegemonies in Pakistan, but certainly this is a watershed moment for sports in Pakistan. What happens from this point onwards may no longer be limited to court battles, for this is the fight for the soul of sports in Pakistan.

Actions of some authorities might be damaging the growth of sportspeople in the country. sdfsports@gmail.com