lastofthepatriots
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Brother, I am so annoyed at Pakistan because their investment in sports in NIL. We have a girl in Rawalpindi who has progressed to blue belt, she has funded her own training in the US and Europe, and she was invited to Korea for invitationals and not 1 (not a single sponsor) paid for her flight...
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This is the state, so how can sports flourish in this atmosphere?
Mobilink Jazz used to sponsor our women's shooting team - even they pulled out because of some phadda with some retired Brigadier sahib:
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This is despite Pakistan having three Olympic level shooters in Javaria Shafqat, Mehwish Farhan and Fatima Azim
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Pakistan represented by only 10 athletes at Tokyo Olympics 2020 - which comprised of the following:
What support have we provided to Haider Ali who made history by being the first ever Pakistani athlete to secure gold in Paralympics in 2020? Do people even know of him? Is he celebrated as a national champion? Hell no!View attachment 866474
- athletics
- badminton
- judo
- shooting
- swimming
- weightlifting
Pakistan is not short of inspirational sportsmen and women:
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It is very unfortunate that Pakistan sports, over the years, have become politicised and nepotistic.
Lack of availability of proper facilities and infrastructure, inadequate role of sports federations and lack of support from the government has badly affected Pakistan’s graph in sports. Perhaps the biggest reason for the extraordinary decline in sports in Pakistan is lack of funding and vision. Pakistan’s sports budget is the lowest in South Asia, less than that of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and even Afghanistan.
To add insult to injury this is how we treat national sports legends:
In July 2021, former hockey Olympian and member of the winning team of the 1994 World Cup Naveed Alam passed away. Alam had been diagnosed with blood cancer.
He underwent chemotherapy at Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Lahore and his health deteriorated after it. He was transferred to the intensive-care unit after his health deteriorated but in vain. Alam had appealed to the federal and provincial government to take note and provide necessary aid for his treatment, which was estimated to cost four million rupees. He helped coach the teams of Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.
We need to move away from this nepotistic and outdated method of managing sports teams and initiate grass-roots level sports foundations to nurture, support and grow talent, funding should be sought from corporate sector and pressure should be placed on federal government to increase funding for investment in sports in Pakistan.
Only one man can save us from this sad predicament..