Former PSB boss slams government for SAG fiasco

Former Director General of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Brig (retd) Arif Siddiqui said on Monday that Pakistan’s performance at the recent South Asian Games in India was the “worst ever” in history.

“It was the worst ever performance of Pakistan in the Games as the country won only 5.02 percent of the gold medals at stake,” he told this correspondent.

In the eight-nation spectacle held in the Indian cities of Guwahati and Shillong from February 5 to 16, Pakistan claimed 12 gold medals out of 239 at stake.

Arif said Pakistan’s best ever performance came in the 1989 South Asian Games in Islamabad in which the hosts claimed 37.83 percent of the gold medals.

In ninth, second, fifth and tenth South Asian Games, Pakistan won 22.35 percent, 22.34 percent, 19.71 percent and 19.24 percent of the gold medals.

“India topped in all games, Pakistan ended second seven times, third thrice and fourth in 1999 Kathmandu edition,” Arif said.

He termed the lack of seriousness on the part of the federal government the sole reason for the sports decline in the country.

“Lack of seriousness on the part of the federal government is apparent from the fact that it has made sports a provincial subject after the 18th amendment. No country desirous of excelling in sports will have such policies,” Arif said.

“Competitive sport is too serious a business to be left to clerks and sycophants,” he said. “National resolve is displayed through national policies. Decisions of the government have been allowed to be compromised by some pressure groups in a few federations in connivance with some government officials and politicians,” said Arif.

“No country faring well in sports has permitted its sports policy to be compromised in such a blatant manner,” the former PSB head said.

“Mafias are still ruling most of the federations, the PSB is a total non-professional organisation and the ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) is a group of clerks,” he said.

He said the government took a U-turn under pressure to resolve the dispute between the PSB and the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). “The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was also banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOA) but they still won 188 gold medals as against Pakistan’s 12,” he said.

He was critical of the government’s preparatory and transportation plan for the SAG. “There was no planning at all. The government officials did not even know about the colour of the track-suits. A long route was taken which took the athletes around 40 hours to reach the destination. How could the athletes deliver following such a tiring journey,” Arif said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PSB used the services of Qatar Airways and Etihad for sending the national contingent to Guwahati.

Those athletes who had to play in Shillong had to proceed by road from Guwahati which consumed further time. They got only one day for rest before their competitions.

Arif said that there was no understanding of sports at any level. “Nobody knows what sport is. Each and every player of the hockey team that beat a third-string of India in the final has been awarded more than Rs1 million, while all other medal winners were forgotten,” he said.

(Source: The News)