A sports ground for a level playing field in cricket-mad Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) On the outskirts of Islamabad, older men gather together on a rugby field that has seen better days. The sign with the club’s name is worn. The floodlights are too expensive to run because electricity rates are high and the club earns only $135 in monthly membership fees.

Looking at the players, coach Mohammed Zahir Uddin said sadly: There is only one game in Pakistan.

That would make cricket, the country’s most popular sport, a dupe in terms of sponsorship, broadcasting rights and capturing the public’s imagination.

Cricket has completely supplanted other sports, even those in which Pakistan has excelled. Field hockey, Pakistan’s national sport, once propelled the country to Olympic gold and global glory, but its popularity and participation have declined. Pakistan dominated the squash world for decades but became a shadow of its former self.

The outlook for a sport like rugby is even bleaker as Pakistan has no heyday or heroes.

The bodies don’t get support in terms of funding, spreading the word, said Hammad Safdar, who is the captain of Pakistan’s national rugby team. Most sports have the same problem. Therefore, we lack performance in the later stages when the test is running because there is no foundation.

Next year, Pakistan will host the South Asian Games, the biggest sports tournament to be held in the country in 20 years. It won 143 medals at the last hosting, including 38 gold. But years of the sport’s neglect could affect its medal tally this time around.

Sports supporters in the shade of crickets say they don’t have the environment to thrive or win top prizes due to lack of investment and interest. Even the universally loved football has its struggles in Pakistan. Infighting and government interference have led to the separation of the international FIFA, which has slowed its growth at home and opportunities abroad.

Pakistan’s state of 220 million people has a sports budget of around $15.3 million, much smaller than other regions in the region. The Sports Council of Pakistan, which oversees all sports in the country and their federations, did not respond to requests for an interview.

Rugby does not receive money from the state, but a grant from the global rugby organization. If it needs more, it asks the chairman or president of the Pakistan Rugby Union to give from his own pocket.

The national rugby ground in eastern Lahore is on army land. It lacks changing rooms. It has no seating, so organizers rent chairs for tournaments. Rugby development coach Shakeel Malik admits it’s hard to get funding without results, but it’s hard to get results without funding.

Cricket, which receives no government funding, has a budget of around $66 million. It shot into the stratosphere when the national team won the 1992 World Cup, captained by Imran Khan, who later entered politics and served as Prime Minister from 2018-2022.

Pakistan has never dominated cricket the way it has dominated squash and hockey; it only has two World Cups and the national team is notoriously unpredictable. But it is a big company with the infrastructure to nurture talent, a thirst for empire building, rampant commercialism and a constant supply of domestic and international matches on television. It is so ingrained in Pakistani life that the Prime Minister accepts the appointment of the Chairman of the Cricket Board.

Its rise in the 1990s coincided with the beginning of the end of hockey and squash.

Pakistan was a squash powerhouse for decades, winning the British Open 17 years in a row until 1963. One family, the Khans, dominated the sport. The last of the dynasty, Jahangir Khan, the former world number one batsman, was unbeaten for hundreds of matches. He won the British Open 10 years in a row until his last victory in 1991.

Khan told The Associated Press that he also doesn’t understand how the family collected as many awards as they did without facilities and investment. Even today Pakistan’s name is number one in squash and so is this family’s name, he said while speaking at the squash complex named after him in Karachi.

He is pained by its decline. Pakistan is now 65th in the world men’s squash rankings. Khan said sports failed to build his family’s legacy.

He claims that poor management had undermined the sport and that players need to show more achievements to get a sponsor. If people have set the bar, it’s up to you to take advantage of it and build on it. Funding is not the solution. You made a world champion when you had nothing.

And there is also cricket strangulation. It’s not necessary that all talents play one thing, he said.

In the heyday of field hockey, people came to watch matches in the tens of thousands, said Samiullah Khan, a player who helped Pakistan win a slew of medals in the sport from the Olympics, World Cup and Asian Games until the 1990s.

It hurts my heart to see the current state of hockey, he said. He said Pakistani teams were not adapting to changes like synthetic turf and rule changes in Europe, which he felt made the sport a free-for-all.

Hockey became like any other sport like rugby. Power left, skill left, he said.

But there is hope and love for hockey. In the outskirts of Karachi, about a dozen young women take part in training for the Karachi Hockey Association team.

Kashmala Batool, 30, has been playing hockey for almost half of her life. It is our national game, he said. Despite not being subsidized or funded by the government, the enjoyment we get from playing our national game cannot be found anywhere else.

Goalkeeper Shazma Naseem started at university and has been playing at the national level for five years. He sees that his parents still have enthusiasm for the sport and feels an obligation to continue it.

It’s definitely our job, to have played hockey so well, to get our name on it so that future generations know about hockey, that this is also a game.