The state-POA rift continues to become worse. On Thursday in the general body meeting of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) major stakeholder Army was not present. And so were Navy and those federations being handled by the people in the armed forces. It’s a serious matter for the POA now.

It has also been learnt that those departments who had sent their representatives to the meeting will be grilled by the state. The government had asked the POA chief Lt Gen (retd) Syed Arif Hasan to resign during a news conference in Islamabad following Pakistan’s empty-handed return from the Tokyo Olympics.

On Thursday the NOC general body showed confidence in Arif Hasan as NOC chief and authorised him to enter into a constructive dialogue with the government, especially the Prime Minister and make an effort to defuse the tension.

Arif is in the US these days and it is expected that he will return to Pakistan soon to meet the premier and other top government functionaries and brief them about the situation and how this tension between the NOC and PSB/IPC escalated.

A senior official of the POA told me that it would not be appropriate for the government to take any unilateral decision without listening to the point of view of the NOC.

It is expected that Arif will be able to do his job and normalise the situation. Otherwise, Pakistan sports will be hurt badly.

Arif says that every sports governing body should work within their own domains. I have written hundreds of times in my previous articles that there should be such a system where everybody could play their due role effectively and within their domain.

The government is about to get the proposed national sports policy approved. And the POA wants to take up this issue and some others with the premier so that international rules and regulations and Olympic Charter could be safeguarded.

I hope there are some seasoned stalwarts in the POA, who have links with some influential people in the state machinery. I believe that efforts should be made to normalise the situation with meaningful and constructive dialogue.

I wrote in my previous article that the country’s senior wrestler and world beach wrestling hero Mohammad Inam would win the World Series title in Greece and he did that. This was his second title of the Beach Wrestling World Series within a week. He had secured gold in the World Series in Italy held on September 3 and 4. This is the fifth world level crown for Inam. He also has to his credit two world championship titles and a World Beach Games crown. Inam took these two golds in Europe in the 90kg competitions.

Interestingly, Zaman Anwar was also able to get bronze in the +90kg. It shows that Pakistan is a fertile land for matchless beach wrestlers.

If we can pull off such huge victories in world beach wrestling we should invest in this genre so that Inam’s legacy could be carried forward.

Inam and Zaman will feature in the Beach Wrestling World Series in Constanta, Romania, on September 25 and 26. If these two grapplers are able to get visas to Romania then I am sure Inam will be able to win his third gold within a month.

Inam missed the first stop of the World Series in France in July due to visa issues. This wrestler has rendered meritorious services for Pakistan, also having won two golds in the Commonwealth Games and a couple of titles in the South Asian Games and some glorious finishes in the Asian Beach Games.

Another good news for Pakistan is that our volleyball team showed some class in the 21st Asian Championship in Japan. When this article appears on Sunday the event will have entered its final day. Although Pakistan failed to progress to the semi-finals because of some new regulations, we did a better job this time than before.

After beating Thailand and Hong Kong in the preliminaries, Pakistan qualified for the quarter-finals as group runners-up as the Green-shirts lost to holders Iran in their last pool game.

In the quarter-finals first fixture against Chinese Taipei Pakistan did well but made some mistakes at crucial stages which cost them the show 3-1.

In the fourth set Pakistan were at one stage 18-14 ahead but could not maintain that lead which denied them the opportunity to win the game and qualify for the semi-finals.

On Friday, Pakistan routed former four-time champions South Korea 3-0 in their second quarter-final stage game. This was a huge win for the Green-shirts as Korea have been a volleyball power in Asia.

Pakistan team comprises mainly young players with almost no exposure but still they showed their class. It means that volleyball’s future in Pakistan is very bright if the sport is properly backed.

If Pakistan finish at the sixth spot it will be a huge achievement as the nation’s performance during the last few Asian Championships had not been good.

It was a testing event for the newly-hired Iranian coach Rahman Mohammadirad. He seems to be a good coach but he will have to properly take care of his players, control their emotions and get the best out of them.

There are multiple psychological issues of the players and handling them according to their temperament and psychology is a difficult job. I hope Mohammadirad will handle them more adroitly in future as Pakistan has an event-rich 2021.

I have been writing for the last few years that we have great volleyball talent. If we invest in volleyball as we have been in hockey, we can become a global power in the next few years in this sport.

73.alam@gmail.com