Water Bottles to the Rescue: Lala Ayub Hockey Stadium’s Turf Crumbles Amid Repair Failures and Transparency Concerns

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Musarrat Ullah Jan – KikxNow . Digital Creator

Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – The bright green of Lala Ayub Hockey Stadium's artificial turf, a beacon of new sporting hope in the past, is today a harsh reminder of bureaucratic apathy and charges of corruption. Millions of rupees spent on its rehabilitation notwithstanding, the life-support sprinkler system of the stadium lies practically in shambles, compelling earnest ground staff into the futile daily exercise of manually pouring more than 32 water bottles just to prevent the turf from incurring irreparable harm.

The issue, rooted in a succession of poorly executed repairs and disregarded warnings, imperils the very soundness of the synthetic field, affecting local training as well as prospects for international-standard games. Early "repairs" were nothing more than cosmetic, as Rs 9,000 was spent to drill a hole to manually pour water, instead of treating the fundamental mechanical failure. A second effort did little better, with only four of eight sprinklers working.

This perpetual crisis is just a symptom of the bigger systemic failure. The Lala Ayub Stadium was one of the major recipients of the Pakistan Sports Board's (PSB) 2017 national turf rehabilitation scheme, which released around Rs 523.163 million in six cities for total infrastructure renovation. But soon after being installed in November 2022, the Peshawar turf started exhibiting disturbing signs of disintegration, such as wrinkling and shrinkage, prompting the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hockey Association to raise strong objections regarding subpar sprinklers, damaged goalposts, and a sub-par sub-base.

Adding fuel to the fire, a five-member inquiry committee constituted by the PSB to ascertain these facts has not yet published its report, with serious implications for transparency. Additionally, it has emerged that the then-female Director of Sports Directorate had earlier written a dissenting note to then-DG Sports Khalid Khan, pointing out unresolved weaknesses prior to the facility's formal handover. Her objections, however, were purportedly ignored, and the stadium was formally taken over despite glaring structural and functional weaknesses.

Now, with defective equipment and a fast deteriorating turf, millions of public funds are coming under heavy scrutiny, and the fate of hockey at Lala Ayub Stadium teeters on the edge.

#LalaAyubStadium #HockeyTurfCrisis #PSBFundsMisuse #KPKSports #SportsScandal #PakistanHockey #AstroturfFailure #SprinklerBreakdown #PublicFundsAccountability #KikxnowInvestigation

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