Sport - The Missing Link for Pakistan's Progress!

A country of over 200 Million of population, over a period of 70 years, have been able to produce a meager amount of athletes and a very limited range of sports. Pakistan also has terribly failed to engineer a diverse sports culture. Cricket is the only sport that has seemed to dominate people's minds regardless of its severe crisis on different levels, from time to time.

Stats that Pakistan have generated on the Olympics is enough to make us crawl under the nearest rock. To date, only two athletes could bring home individual medals. Both were bronze. Since 1960, which was the most successful year for Pakistan, with two medals and a healthy participation, the country managed to rank on the 20th which is the highest it could achieve by far. After that, a series of appalling numbers with only 7 athletes to present Pakistan in 2016 clearly amplify the setback at a national level. 

Pakistan sure is a developing country but as a matter of fact is doing extremely well than Ethiopia that focuses on one sport i.e running and Cuba that focuses on boxing and has garnered over 50 medals each at the Olympics. So, excuse of being a developing country may be thrown out of the window without even opening it. 

Moving on.

Its not a rocket science to posit that a country with an enormous size of population does not have any talent. On the contrary, there is a huge abundance of raw talent and an inordinate amount of people with a knack of becoming the legends in various fields of sports. However, absence of favorable conditions aided with proper infrastructure, facilities, training mediums and facilitators which are of paramount importance has made it impossible to make use of the sheer talent. 

Transparency and structural complexities have also played a huge role in sizing the significance of sports in Pakistan. Absence of merit and a rising culture of nepotism has caused tumult by the media and the people every now and then but that has not been sufficient enough to bring in a consistent change. 

Educational system, where is hugely divided between the Private and Non-Private is equally redundant when it comes to the upgradation or overhauling of the existing system. Neither it is research oriented nor it is flexible enough to bring more options towards the students who have the ability to further their career choices which may include sports. I do not believe there exists any regulatory body that is keeping a tab on the unchecked proliferation of the branches a school comprises in different parts of the city while having no rules and set of standards to follow. A school without a play ground is like a body without a soul. At least, I cannot imagine to send my future kids to a place that deems outdoor activities of negligible importance no matter how strongly they claim to produce Newtons and Lincolns of our times. 

Moreover, any focus on making the women's participation in the sports is a joke to even women. Where, participation of women can not only increase the chances of being out there more and more, it also will bring a great deal of change in the global perspective about the treatment of women in Pakistan. 

I have not heard of a single bill that has been passed in the Parliament, even with the mighty presence of an ex-sportsman who has made Pakistan the Cricket World Champion once and then later spearheaded the country's biggest political party.

Today, sports is not only glamourised but also is a huge source of revenues playing a pivotal role in the economy of a country. Institutionalizing and investing in sports is a pre-requisite for the country's progress and currently its a huge missing link that exists for Pakistan's development.  

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