Pakistan’s recent poor show in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where they finished at the bottom of the medals table, shows a sorry picture of our sports. While Lesotho, with just a 2.2 million population, has two bronzes, we managed just one bronze and finished at number 36 and last with ten other countries like Norfolk Island, Bermuda, and Gambia, capturing a single bronze.
We always remind ourselves of the trite cliché: victory has many fathers; a defeat is an orphan. There is another way of describing success and that is that it leaves clues through repeatable habits, pointing towards a slick system.
A defeat leaves figures and data pointing towards a lack of system. Once a country fails at the international level, it points towards a faulty system, broken strategies, and areas requiring change.
Be it in any sport, Pakistan is regressing rather than progressing. Pakistan won two golds through javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem and weightlifter Nooh Butt in the 2022 CW Games in the same climes of Birmingham. They also had three silvers (all in wrestling) and two bronzes (wrestling and Judo.
Pakistan’s showings in the last Asian Games, 2022 in Hangzhou, China wasn’t inspiring either, finishing with a silver in Squash, two bronzes in shooting and Kabaddi – a far cry from the top teams like China, Japan and India. In fact, Pakistan finished one position worse than war-torn Afghanistan, at 31.
The most shocking flop in the latest CW Games was that of Arshad Nadeem. Ever since Nadeem won the prestigious and more challenging Olympic title with a new Olympic record of 92.97 meters, he became a cynosure of the whole Pakistan.
Accolades and cash prizes followed as it was no mean achievement. Nadeem had won Pakistan’s first-ever gold medal in an individual event other than the gold in the team event of hockey.
But questions are being asked, fairly or otherwise. Have we pampered Nadeem with so many cash awards? It may be argued that Nadeem should have been given a system to further improve and not pampered with colossal cash. Most of the top athletes in the world train in countries where there is an excellent base for their events.
Germany, South Africa and Hungary are the hubs for proper Javelin training, but instead of giving Nadeem so much money, we should have based him in South Africa under Liebenberg to progress. This South African coach was instrumental in guiding Nadeem to Olympic gold.
Nadeem kept on pleading for training in South Africa but he was not given the required funds. Sadly, he did not look out for his own bank account and should have spent all by himself to train with an expert coach. It is sad that not going abroad for proper training affected his performance.
Now it will be a huge task for Arshad Nadeem to stage a comeback. The Asian Games are just around the corner and he will have to train hard and extensively to win a medal there as the competition has heated up with a Sri Lankan joining the Indians as his close rivals.
Pakistan’s only medal at the CW Games, a disappointing bronze, came through boxer Fatima Zahra, which is a welcome sign as this is the first time that a female boxer from the country has won a medal at the top level.
Now this achievement must inspire more girls to become pugilists and earn laurels for Pakistan. It is also necessary that we should not pamper Fatima with cash awards. Give her some money as a reward, but invest more money on her progress. If we send Fatima to China or Cuba for further training, she will achieve more success in top-level events.
One more setback came about in weightlifting. The recent ban on Pakistan’s Weightlifting Federation for unauthorised elections and doping offences in international competitions has been a big hurdle for lifters to compete at the international level.
Due to this ban, Nooh Butt could not defend his gold medal at the recent Games. He was also barred from taking part in the Olympic Qualifiers and, in all probability, will not be competing at the Asian Games.
We all know Nooh Butt is a medal prospect. So, it is imperative to clear him so that he can win laurels for the country.
The biggest tragedy of Pakistan’s sports is that we do not have a standalone ministry of sports. Instead, federal sports affairs are managed under the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC). As a result, we do not have a sports minister, which is tragicomic for a country known for its achievements in sports.
As they say, “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” Pakistan has to change the system in order to attain progress in sports, which have been one of our famed identities.
